Chapter 16
The Potion and Ivy Ivenstone
The week went by quickly, and finally it was the end of November. Snow filled Hogwart's ground, and the cabins were now more freezing then ever. Hagrid still refused to cut down any trees until Christmas, so every body was very cold, and some are coming down with bad colds (Madam Pomfrey doesn't agree with Hagrid's plan). Harry, Hermione, and Ron lined up outside with the rest of the Gryffindors, waiting to go to Hogsmeade. Hermione carrying an extra large bag for the potion ingredients, Ron carrying another bag just in case if Hermione's bag wont be able to hold any more ingredients, and Harry brought another bag with his Invisibility Cloak stuffed safely inside. Dean and Seamus were fighting over an icicle they found outside the Gryffindor's cabin, and the rest of the school were playing happily in the snow. Even though everyone seems to be having fun, Hermione, Harry nor Ron joined in. They were too busy thinking about the key and the potion. If there's one thing they shouldn't do, is to make it seem so obvious that they need the potion ingredients to brew a potion, for they don't have Potion class anymore. They discussed the plan earlier and decided to sneak into the store when no one is watching (especially Snape). Professor Dumbledore finally arrived with Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, the three of them wearing heavy cloaks, and Professor McGonagall; a pair of brown earmuffs that matched her cloak. "Students, as you guys might already know, we're going to Hogsmeade. Now you guys have to know there is no trespassing on other people's territory, any playing games at Hogsmeade, definitely no stealing, and stick in a group or with a partner", Professor McGonagall said sternly to everyone. It didn't take them long to get their, but it seemed forever to Hermione, Ron and Harry, for they were very desperate in getting to Hogsmeade to get the potion ingredients. But in a few minutes, they were standing outside at the new potion ingredients store. As they enter the store, a weird smell greeted their noses. Ron, while pinching his nose looked around, Hermione went straight to the counter and rang a bell that was there, while Harry examined the shop more closely. Everywhere he looked, there were jars and jars of potion ingredients. There was a specific jar that had a thick liquid that reminded Harry or vomit, as soon as he saw that he quickly turned away before he vomited himself. He later came across a jar filled with brown flakes, and another jar full of green jelly-like locusts. Harry walked to the counter where Hermione was, for he couldn't look at anymore of these ingredients. Hermione was busy taking out the big book that Harry and Ron took out of the library. She put it on the counter and flipped to the page where it explains what type of ingredients they needed. Just as she was half way through the list, an old woman in black walked out of the storage room. She had thick eyelashes, and eyes that reminded Harry of Mrs. Figg's cats. Her nose and mouth was hidden behind a shawl she wrapped around her face. "May I help you"? "Err.yes, we're here for some potion ingredients", Hermione said nervously. "And what do you need"? "It says here in the book", Hermione said pointing to the page. The woman took a long time looking at it before making her way towards the storage room again, coming back out with a jar of soft looking fur, and a extra small jar only containing a black small ball. "The fur is rabbit's tail, and the black thing is the Anure's heart", the woman explained pointing at the ingredients as she said it. She left again towards the shelf where Harry saw the jar of vomit, to Harry's surprise she took it. She then made her way across the room and took 5 more jars and came back to the counter. "This one is the Yellow Squash (pointing to the vomit jar), and this one is the Unicorn crushed hair (pointing at a jar containing silvery sand), this one is Troll drool (pointing to a jar filled with clear liquid), brown burnt uppire (a jar filled with flaky brown and black stuff), freshly collected sea water from the north sea (pointing to a jar filled with water), and this one's from a very rare and magical creature, an Orgior's liver (pointing to a jar filled with a gold liver)", she explained. Hermione nodded and muttered to herself, trying to remember everything. "Just to let you know, the Orgior's liver is to put in a potion, at midnight. No sooner or later", she continued. Hermione nodded and muttered to herself again. They paid for the ingredients, and stuffed all of it in Hermione's bag, and stuffed the book in Ron's bag. They left the store without anyone noticing, and went straight to Honeydukes. As they were about to enter, Draco came out with a girl beside him, and Crabbe and Goyle at the back. "Well.it's Potter, Weasley, and Granger", Draco exclaimed. "Go away Malfoy", Ron warned. "Why should he"? The girl beside Draco shot back at Ron. The girl had silver blonde hair, and cold grey eyes that matched Draco. "And who might YOU be"? Hermione glared at her. "I thought you would never ask"! Draco smirked. "This is my cousin, Ivy, Ivy Ivenstone". "Yeah right", Harry said. "If she's your cousin, why wasn't she at the sorting ceremony"? "I wasn't, I just came yesterday. My uncle, Draco's father, sent an owl to Dumbledore telling him I'm coming to Hogwarts. Dumbledore agreed to let me in, so I came this morning. The sorting hat decided that I should be in Slytherin ("Figures", Ron muttered) so here I am, whether you like it or not", Ivy said putting on the same smirk Draco had. Draco, Ivy, Goyle, and Crabbe pushed past Harry, Hermione, and Ron and left without another word. "Great.the last thing we need is another git like Draco", Ron muttered as they entered Honeydukes. They bought their sweets and left the store and went straight to The Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer. "So are we going to make the potion tonight"? Ron asked, breaking the tense moment of silence. "Yeah.the sooner we get this potion brewed, the faster we'll be able to get to Knockturn Alley", Hermione said. "But where are we going to brew it"? Harry asked. "We can't go back into the castle, and we can't brew it outside since there's teachers there, and we can't brew it in our cabin since everyone will get suspicious and ask us what we're doing". Hermione bit her lip and thought for a moment. "Harry's got a point there, we can't do it in the cabins, or outside.so we're going to have to find out someway to get into the castle and see if there's an empty classroom. We can brew the potion there", Hermione said finally. "But we're not allowed to go inside the castle", Ron said. "We can use my Invisibility Cloak", Harry suggested. "Yeah, we can use that. And besides, we'll go at night when everyone's asleep, I bet the scientists should be sleeping then", Hermione said. The three finished their butterbeers and left.
"Everyone's asleep right"? Hermione muttered without looking up from a book she was reading. "I think so", Harry said without looking up from the game of Wizard Chess he was having with Ron. "Alright let's go", Hermione put down her book and went into her room. Harry and Ron cleaned up the leftover chess pieces and waited for Hermione to return. She came back with the book safely put into her bag, and the potion ingredients in another, and a cauldron in her arms. Harry took out his invisibility cloak, and covered himself, Ron, and Hermione with it. They snuck out of the common room and left the cabin without been heard or seen. The three entered the castle, which looked much more messier then Harry and Ron have seen before. "What a mess"! Hermione whispered. They went through every single classroom there was, but could not find an empty one, without wood chips or special instruments the scientists use. "There's only one place left we haven't looked", Hermione said. "Where"? Harry asked. "Moaning Myrtle's washroom", Hermione pointed out. "Oh no! We're not going in there"! Ron exclaimed. "Keep your voice down.yes we are, we have to, there's nowhere else", Hermione whispered. "But Myrtle fancies Harry, she'll probably be sitting right next to him making googly eyes at him", Ron shivered. "Shut up Ron", Harry whispered. "Hermione's right, there's nowhere else, we just have to go there no matter what". It took a while for Harry and Hermione to convince Ron to go, but finally the succeeded and they made their way to Moaning Myrtle's washroom. It looked just the same the last time they saw it in their second year when they made the Polyjuice Potion. Hermione muttered the same spell she used to make a waterproof fire, and settled her cauldron on top of it. "Okay.we'll need a scoop of Yellow Squash first", Hermione said reading out of the book. Ron handed Hermione the jar while Hermione dug out a spoon she brought along with her. She dug a spoonful of Yellow Squash and put it into the cauldron, which sizzled and turned bright orange. Next, they put 5 pieces of rabbit's hair in, then the whole jar of Troll drool. The potion was bright red before they dumped all the unicorn-crushed hair into the potion, which made the potion turn blue. Hermione put a pinch of brown burnt uppire, dumped the Anure's heart into the potion, and put all of the sea water into the cauldron. The potion turned to bright red, and kept sizzling. "Now we got to wait till midnight to put the Orgior's liver in", Hermione, said. "Which is good, because it's midnight in 5, 4, 3", Ron said while watching Harry's watch. "2, 1, NOW"! Hermione unscrewed the jar containing Orgior's liver and quickly dumped it into the cauldron. The potion sizzled even more and soon the sizzling stopped making the potion turn silver. "The potion's done"! Hermione said happily. She dug through her bag and brought out three water bottles. "I'm going to fill you each a bottle of the potion. Take about 5 sips of this. If you realizes the potion is wearing off, drink some more afterwards", Hermione instructed. Harry and Ron nodded as Hermione filled the bottles with the potion. She handed it to them and the three-started packing up the leftover ingredients. Hermione muttered another spell and the fire went out. She put the book back in her bag along with the left over potion ingredients, and carried the cauldron. They cautiously made their way out of Moaning Myrtle's washroom and started walking. "Yes master, I know! Please spare me"! Harry, Hermione, and Ron stopped dead in they're tracks. Harry motioned them to hide behind a statue. They finally got the chance to take a look at who's talking and finds Mr. Becker talking to the wall. "Please! I know, I'm late again, but please"! Mr. Becker muttered again, sounding pleading. "Don't hurt me! Spare me master, I wont ever do it again"! "Weird", Ron whispered. "Let's get going.this is getting really creepy", Harry muttered. They agreed so they silently left the castle thinking about what they just saw. "Who was that"? Ron asked. "I think it was Mr. Becker.but you can't exactly see, we were so far away", Hermione said. Harry nodded in response. "We'll concentrate on that later.right now we got to focus on the potion. When are we going to drink it"? Harry said changing the subject. "Tomorrow afternoon, we can't drink it at night, other wise, the shop might be closed then. But we'll need loads of time to find the store.and we got to be careful, we might run into some weird people or things", Hermione explained as they entered their cabins. "Why be careful? They can't see us"! Ron exclaimed loudly. "I just have a feeling we're going to get caught", Hermione mumbled.
The week went by quickly, and finally it was the end of November. Snow filled Hogwart's ground, and the cabins were now more freezing then ever. Hagrid still refused to cut down any trees until Christmas, so every body was very cold, and some are coming down with bad colds (Madam Pomfrey doesn't agree with Hagrid's plan). Harry, Hermione, and Ron lined up outside with the rest of the Gryffindors, waiting to go to Hogsmeade. Hermione carrying an extra large bag for the potion ingredients, Ron carrying another bag just in case if Hermione's bag wont be able to hold any more ingredients, and Harry brought another bag with his Invisibility Cloak stuffed safely inside. Dean and Seamus were fighting over an icicle they found outside the Gryffindor's cabin, and the rest of the school were playing happily in the snow. Even though everyone seems to be having fun, Hermione, Harry nor Ron joined in. They were too busy thinking about the key and the potion. If there's one thing they shouldn't do, is to make it seem so obvious that they need the potion ingredients to brew a potion, for they don't have Potion class anymore. They discussed the plan earlier and decided to sneak into the store when no one is watching (especially Snape). Professor Dumbledore finally arrived with Professor McGonagall and Professor Snape, the three of them wearing heavy cloaks, and Professor McGonagall; a pair of brown earmuffs that matched her cloak. "Students, as you guys might already know, we're going to Hogsmeade. Now you guys have to know there is no trespassing on other people's territory, any playing games at Hogsmeade, definitely no stealing, and stick in a group or with a partner", Professor McGonagall said sternly to everyone. It didn't take them long to get their, but it seemed forever to Hermione, Ron and Harry, for they were very desperate in getting to Hogsmeade to get the potion ingredients. But in a few minutes, they were standing outside at the new potion ingredients store. As they enter the store, a weird smell greeted their noses. Ron, while pinching his nose looked around, Hermione went straight to the counter and rang a bell that was there, while Harry examined the shop more closely. Everywhere he looked, there were jars and jars of potion ingredients. There was a specific jar that had a thick liquid that reminded Harry or vomit, as soon as he saw that he quickly turned away before he vomited himself. He later came across a jar filled with brown flakes, and another jar full of green jelly-like locusts. Harry walked to the counter where Hermione was, for he couldn't look at anymore of these ingredients. Hermione was busy taking out the big book that Harry and Ron took out of the library. She put it on the counter and flipped to the page where it explains what type of ingredients they needed. Just as she was half way through the list, an old woman in black walked out of the storage room. She had thick eyelashes, and eyes that reminded Harry of Mrs. Figg's cats. Her nose and mouth was hidden behind a shawl she wrapped around her face. "May I help you"? "Err.yes, we're here for some potion ingredients", Hermione said nervously. "And what do you need"? "It says here in the book", Hermione said pointing to the page. The woman took a long time looking at it before making her way towards the storage room again, coming back out with a jar of soft looking fur, and a extra small jar only containing a black small ball. "The fur is rabbit's tail, and the black thing is the Anure's heart", the woman explained pointing at the ingredients as she said it. She left again towards the shelf where Harry saw the jar of vomit, to Harry's surprise she took it. She then made her way across the room and took 5 more jars and came back to the counter. "This one is the Yellow Squash (pointing to the vomit jar), and this one is the Unicorn crushed hair (pointing at a jar containing silvery sand), this one is Troll drool (pointing to a jar filled with clear liquid), brown burnt uppire (a jar filled with flaky brown and black stuff), freshly collected sea water from the north sea (pointing to a jar filled with water), and this one's from a very rare and magical creature, an Orgior's liver (pointing to a jar filled with a gold liver)", she explained. Hermione nodded and muttered to herself, trying to remember everything. "Just to let you know, the Orgior's liver is to put in a potion, at midnight. No sooner or later", she continued. Hermione nodded and muttered to herself again. They paid for the ingredients, and stuffed all of it in Hermione's bag, and stuffed the book in Ron's bag. They left the store without anyone noticing, and went straight to Honeydukes. As they were about to enter, Draco came out with a girl beside him, and Crabbe and Goyle at the back. "Well.it's Potter, Weasley, and Granger", Draco exclaimed. "Go away Malfoy", Ron warned. "Why should he"? The girl beside Draco shot back at Ron. The girl had silver blonde hair, and cold grey eyes that matched Draco. "And who might YOU be"? Hermione glared at her. "I thought you would never ask"! Draco smirked. "This is my cousin, Ivy, Ivy Ivenstone". "Yeah right", Harry said. "If she's your cousin, why wasn't she at the sorting ceremony"? "I wasn't, I just came yesterday. My uncle, Draco's father, sent an owl to Dumbledore telling him I'm coming to Hogwarts. Dumbledore agreed to let me in, so I came this morning. The sorting hat decided that I should be in Slytherin ("Figures", Ron muttered) so here I am, whether you like it or not", Ivy said putting on the same smirk Draco had. Draco, Ivy, Goyle, and Crabbe pushed past Harry, Hermione, and Ron and left without another word. "Great.the last thing we need is another git like Draco", Ron muttered as they entered Honeydukes. They bought their sweets and left the store and went straight to The Three Broomsticks for some butterbeer. "So are we going to make the potion tonight"? Ron asked, breaking the tense moment of silence. "Yeah.the sooner we get this potion brewed, the faster we'll be able to get to Knockturn Alley", Hermione said. "But where are we going to brew it"? Harry asked. "We can't go back into the castle, and we can't brew it outside since there's teachers there, and we can't brew it in our cabin since everyone will get suspicious and ask us what we're doing". Hermione bit her lip and thought for a moment. "Harry's got a point there, we can't do it in the cabins, or outside.so we're going to have to find out someway to get into the castle and see if there's an empty classroom. We can brew the potion there", Hermione said finally. "But we're not allowed to go inside the castle", Ron said. "We can use my Invisibility Cloak", Harry suggested. "Yeah, we can use that. And besides, we'll go at night when everyone's asleep, I bet the scientists should be sleeping then", Hermione said. The three finished their butterbeers and left.
"Everyone's asleep right"? Hermione muttered without looking up from a book she was reading. "I think so", Harry said without looking up from the game of Wizard Chess he was having with Ron. "Alright let's go", Hermione put down her book and went into her room. Harry and Ron cleaned up the leftover chess pieces and waited for Hermione to return. She came back with the book safely put into her bag, and the potion ingredients in another, and a cauldron in her arms. Harry took out his invisibility cloak, and covered himself, Ron, and Hermione with it. They snuck out of the common room and left the cabin without been heard or seen. The three entered the castle, which looked much more messier then Harry and Ron have seen before. "What a mess"! Hermione whispered. They went through every single classroom there was, but could not find an empty one, without wood chips or special instruments the scientists use. "There's only one place left we haven't looked", Hermione said. "Where"? Harry asked. "Moaning Myrtle's washroom", Hermione pointed out. "Oh no! We're not going in there"! Ron exclaimed. "Keep your voice down.yes we are, we have to, there's nowhere else", Hermione whispered. "But Myrtle fancies Harry, she'll probably be sitting right next to him making googly eyes at him", Ron shivered. "Shut up Ron", Harry whispered. "Hermione's right, there's nowhere else, we just have to go there no matter what". It took a while for Harry and Hermione to convince Ron to go, but finally the succeeded and they made their way to Moaning Myrtle's washroom. It looked just the same the last time they saw it in their second year when they made the Polyjuice Potion. Hermione muttered the same spell she used to make a waterproof fire, and settled her cauldron on top of it. "Okay.we'll need a scoop of Yellow Squash first", Hermione said reading out of the book. Ron handed Hermione the jar while Hermione dug out a spoon she brought along with her. She dug a spoonful of Yellow Squash and put it into the cauldron, which sizzled and turned bright orange. Next, they put 5 pieces of rabbit's hair in, then the whole jar of Troll drool. The potion was bright red before they dumped all the unicorn-crushed hair into the potion, which made the potion turn blue. Hermione put a pinch of brown burnt uppire, dumped the Anure's heart into the potion, and put all of the sea water into the cauldron. The potion turned to bright red, and kept sizzling. "Now we got to wait till midnight to put the Orgior's liver in", Hermione, said. "Which is good, because it's midnight in 5, 4, 3", Ron said while watching Harry's watch. "2, 1, NOW"! Hermione unscrewed the jar containing Orgior's liver and quickly dumped it into the cauldron. The potion sizzled even more and soon the sizzling stopped making the potion turn silver. "The potion's done"! Hermione said happily. She dug through her bag and brought out three water bottles. "I'm going to fill you each a bottle of the potion. Take about 5 sips of this. If you realizes the potion is wearing off, drink some more afterwards", Hermione instructed. Harry and Ron nodded as Hermione filled the bottles with the potion. She handed it to them and the three-started packing up the leftover ingredients. Hermione muttered another spell and the fire went out. She put the book back in her bag along with the left over potion ingredients, and carried the cauldron. They cautiously made their way out of Moaning Myrtle's washroom and started walking. "Yes master, I know! Please spare me"! Harry, Hermione, and Ron stopped dead in they're tracks. Harry motioned them to hide behind a statue. They finally got the chance to take a look at who's talking and finds Mr. Becker talking to the wall. "Please! I know, I'm late again, but please"! Mr. Becker muttered again, sounding pleading. "Don't hurt me! Spare me master, I wont ever do it again"! "Weird", Ron whispered. "Let's get going.this is getting really creepy", Harry muttered. They agreed so they silently left the castle thinking about what they just saw. "Who was that"? Ron asked. "I think it was Mr. Becker.but you can't exactly see, we were so far away", Hermione said. Harry nodded in response. "We'll concentrate on that later.right now we got to focus on the potion. When are we going to drink it"? Harry said changing the subject. "Tomorrow afternoon, we can't drink it at night, other wise, the shop might be closed then. But we'll need loads of time to find the store.and we got to be careful, we might run into some weird people or things", Hermione explained as they entered their cabins. "Why be careful? They can't see us"! Ron exclaimed loudly. "I just have a feeling we're going to get caught", Hermione mumbled.