Transfiguration proved to be considerably eventful the next day. The students had been instructed to transfigure their quills into a bird of their choice. Harry changed his quill into a green finch and Hermione changed hers into a nightingale. In an attempt to change his quill into a penguin, Ron accidentally ended up with a diricawl. Vincent Crabbe's crow flew over to Ron's diricawl and started to peck at it.
"Get your ugly crow off of my bird."
Crabbe went up to Ron's face.
"Whose bird are you calling ugly, twit? Your bird's a bloody Dodo bird."
Ron turned red, half from embarrassment and half from anger.
Stirred by his frustration, Ron changed his Dodo bird into a dog, which began snapping at Crabbe's crow. In return, Crabbe turned his crow into a wasp, which stung Ron's dog right atop the nose. The combat went on with Ron's quill changing from a dog to a snake to a spider and Crabbe's quill turning from a wasp to a weasel to a scorpion. Noticing the racket, Professor McGonagall found the two boys at it with each other. Uttering a quick Restoring Spell, McGonagall turned the two animals back into quills. She turned to the two boys, completely appalled.
"There will be no trivial brawling in this class. Fifty points will be taken away from both of your houses for this, as well as detention for a week. Is it understood that this behavior is not tolerated?"
Ron and Crabbe both studied the wooden floor.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall."
Buried behind piles of books, Hermione scoured through all the Potions books in the library to find ingredients and instructions for the Mirage Generating Potion. It had been three hours since dinner had passed, and she was still meticulously checking every potion book to see if she had missed a clue. Blast it all, she thought, I bet the potion doesn't even exist and Snape is just finding another reason to snap at us for our stupidity. She sighed and rubbed her eyes. There was no way she was going to find the potion tonight.
"Hermione?"
She looked up, hearing someone call her.
"I'm right here, behind section J-N."
The owner of the voice looked around, finally finding Hermione behind a mountain of books. Natalia smiled down at her in amusement.
"How can you ever study so much? I would die of frustration within the first hour."
Nodding tiredly, she replied,
"I'm trying to find information on the Mirage Generating Potion, and I cannot find it anywhere. I'm starting to believe that Snape is just pulling our legs."
Natalia frowned. She wondered why Hogwarts did not have any information on the potion. Then she remembered. The potion had originated from Egypt and was not widely known. The first Egyptian wizards used it as protection for their tombs, hoping to frighten away intruders with images of demons when the potion reacted with their footsteps. Natalia smiled to herself. She just now remembered that the wizards at Hogwarts did not have an extensive knowledge of the Eastern magical realm. Then, she wondered, how would Snape know about the Mirage Rendering Potion? It was quite rare. Taken aback, she was a bit impressed. Perhaps the Potions Master was really the best in the world after all. She turned her attention back to Hermione, planning to give her the answer to her hours of studying.
"Back in the ancient wizarding days, Egyptian wizards would use various forms of magic to protect their kings' tombs. One of these forms of protection was through an illusion that was created to scare intruders away. The illusions were created from a potion reacting against Liquid Fire. This potion was eventually named the Mirage-Generating Potion after Muggle scientists in the fifteenth century discovered that certain illusions of oases in the desert were actually mirages of the real oases. Eastern wizards from the fourteenth century discovered that the ancient Egyptian wizards had used the same principle – only the wizards had discovered it long before the Muggle scientists discovered the concept. Wizards were sent to the tombs to find traces of the potion, and from that, they were able to recreate the Mirage-Generating Potion."
Hermione looked at her in awe. The entire three hours of research had not given her as much information on the potion and the history of it as Natalia had in a couple of minutes.
"But do you happen to know the ingredients of the potion and the way to go about making it?"
Thinking for a minute, Natalia replied,
"I do know the ingredients necessary, although I do not know of the procedure in which to make it. I shall send an owl to my Mother tomorrow morning to ask her about it."
Relieved of the great stress that had hung about her, Hermione gave a great sigh of relief.
"I'm finally feeling the fatigue sink in. Say, how did you know about the potion?"
The topic seemed to be of great interest for Hermione. No wonder why she loves Potions, even if Snape teaches it, she thought.
"My mother is partly of Eastern descent. Her family has had an extensive knowledge about potions for generations."
It all made sense for Hermione now.
"Is that why you knew how to make the Madness-Inducing Potion and its antidote?"
Natalia smiled, amused that she could talk about the incident after such a short time.
"No, I didn't know how to make it, but I did know the effects of Alihotsy. My Mother taught me one of the greatest things: that one cannot know everything, so we have to acquire as many skills as possible and use the knowledge that we already know to make the best of the situation. So basically, I just composed a potion with ingredients that I thought would work logically together and made its antidote by taking a cue from the potion itself. In other words, I winged it."
Hermione looked at her in disbelief.
"Wow, when Dumbledore said you had exceptional abilities for Potions, he wasn't kidding!"
Natalia frowned when she heard this. Nobody was supposed to have listened to that discussion except for Dumbledore, Snape, and her.
"How did you know about what Dumbledore said?"
Immediately, Hermione's face turned red. She began to explain sheepishly,
"Oh – I'm so sorry. Harry, Ron, and I…... well, you see, Harry has this invisibility cloak and we use it once in awhile. We were curious about what Dumbledore wanted with you on the first day of school, so we followed you up to Dumbledore's office."
Natalia burst into a fit of laughter.
"Oh, how absolutely ridiculous! I did not think for a moment that I was interesting enough for you to follow me up to Dumbledore's office of all places. What if he or Snape caught you?"
Terribly relieved that she did not get angry, Hermione replied,
"We actually thought that Snape started to sense us, as Dumbledore has always known where we are, even with the invisibility cloak on. I guess we figured that if Dumbledore didn't blow our cover, he thought it was all right for us to be there. But when you and Snape went down to the dungeons, we took off because we could kind of sense that Snape was getting suspicious."
"My, that is quite amusing. Sorry to get off topic so much – would you like me to write down the ingredients for you before you head off to the dormitories?"
Hermione beamed – this was turning out to be a lot less demanding than she thought.
"Yes, please, that would be a wonderful help. Thank you very much, you don't know how much this helps."
Natalia took out a spare scroll and wrote down the ingredients:
Ingredients required for making a Mirage-Rendering Potion:
Morning Dew from a hot, dry terrain (best would be Morning Dew from a desert).
Body particle from person or thing the illusion will imitate.
Dried leech carcases. These will take small amounts of magic from the potion-maker and transfer it to the illusion, allowing the potion-maker to have power over the illusion. Must be worn around the neck for three days to be rendered effective.
Sap from a Sun-Breath Flower. This is used to animate the mirage. Sap taken from a Sun-Breath Flower has the power to animate anything, be it alive or dead. However, it cannot bring the subject to life. One must be careful while using the sap, for if the user touches it, their hands or whatever other extremities will have an animation of its own for a certain amount of time.
A parrot's tongue to give the mirage the ability to speak if the wizard so wishes.
Liquid Fire. This reacts and gives heat to the Morning Dew, which allows the Mirage to stay physically visual. The amount of Liquid Fire used depends on how long the Mirage needs to be kept in a visual aspect.
Hermione went quickly over the list. These ingredients intrigued her greatly and she remembered seeing some of them when she had broken into Snape's office. Natalia inquired about the supply of the ingredients.
"Does Hogwarts hold these ingredients?"
Hermione looked over the list again to check.
"Yes…..Hogwarts has most of these except for…..the Morning Dew. We have Morning Dew here, but not from a hot dry terrain."
A tall witch loomed over from behind them.
"Girls, it is time to go back to your dormitories."
They turned around to see Professor McGonagall standing behind them. Hermione took this opportunity to ask about the Morning Dew.
"Professor McGonagall, would you happen to know if Hogwarts has any Morning Dew from a dry and hot terrain?"
McGonagall's brow furrowed in thought.
"I don't recall that we do, but if we have it, I assume that Professor Snape would be the supplier. You should ask him. By the way, why do you need Morning Dew?"
Hermione smiled, happy that she could show off her finds.
"Professor Snape has assigned the Advanced Potions class to make a Mirage-Generating Potion. Morning Dew from a hot and dry terrain is one of the ingredients."
"Mirage-Generating Potion…..interesting, I haven't heard of that one in ages. Well, I guess the two of you are up to the challenge, seeing as you have already gotten a list of the ingredients. I hope you will find everything necessary for the potion, but now, it is really time for you two to go back to your dormitories. I am sure Professor Snape will not be happy to find the two of you out even if you are studying Potions. Good night, ladies."
Natalia walked Hermione to the stairwells.
"We should ask Snape for the Morning Dew tomorrow after you send an owl to your Mother. We also have to get the leech carcasses so we have enough time for it to absorb our magic."
The first phrase gave Natalia a sense of dread.
"Hermione, could I ask a favor of you?"
"Of course, what is it?"
Turning toward her friend, Natalia replied,
"Would you mind asking Snape for the Morning Dew on my behalf and getting the leech carcasses for me? The professor and I are not on the best of terms right now."
Hermione nodded.
"I figured that, due to the way he quipped at you today. He never does that to a Slytherin, much less the heir of Slytherin. But I will ask for you and get the leeches for you."
"Thank you, that saves me from a lot of strife and headache."
Hermione smiled warmly at her.
"It's no problem at all. Goodnight Natalia, see you tomorrow."
"Goodnight Hermione."
Hermione turned back to Natalia after a moment.
"You could have breakfast with us tomorrow if you like. We would love to have you."
Smiling, Natalia replied,
"I shall think about it."
