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Author Note: Here you go, thanks for waiting.
11. Double Trouble in Double Potions
Harry couldn't decide which was colder, the frigid dungeon itself, or the leer Lucius Malfoy had presented him with as he walked in the door. Harry, Ron and Hermione quickly beat a retreat to the very back of the dungeon where they proceeded to unpack their cauldrons as quietly as possible.
"All right," Harry muttered as Neville stumbled over to sit next to Hermione, "We are not going to provoke him."
"Why," Ron hissed irritably, "is it that I get the feeling that by the end of class I'm actually going to miss Snape?"
Harry nodded in agreement but held back on a response as Lucius's vindictive gaze raked across the room. The professor stalked around to his desk and sat down with ominous slowness. He then surveyed the room once more before speaking.
"Gryffindor and Slytherin, fifth year Potions. I see here in my records that, while one of these houses has scored well in this course since its very first year," He favored the Slytherin side of the room with a grim little smile, "the other," and here his smile became predatory, "has maintained a woefully inadequate average. Can anyone tell me how such a thing could have happened?"
The Gryffindor side of the room sank a bit in their chairs, none willing to tempt the new professor by detailing the rampant favoritism of the former. Still, Lucius sat back in his chair as though he expected an answer. On the Slytherin side of the room, a hand raised lazily towards the ceiling and hung their laconically until Lucius smiled and said, "Malfoy?"
"Well, one of those houses must not care enough. Perhaps they didn't have adequate respect for such an important subject."
Harry grimaced. Lucius was absolutely determined to enrage one of the Gryffindors enough for him to have an excuse to take off points. Dean Thomas opened his mouth with an outraged expression on his face, but Seamus kicked him hard under the table and he closed his mouth. but not nearly fast enough.
"You have something to say Mr. Thomas?"
"No sir."
Professor Malfoy smiled triumphantly. "Well then, there's one of the problems. No class participation! Ten points from Gryffindor!" He surveyed the class, waiting no doubt, for an outburst from one of the Gryffindors. After a moment, he subsided and turned to his role book.
He proceeded through without a hitch until he came to Hermione. "Ah, Miss Granger. I am told you are prone to outbursts in class. They will not be tolerated." He proceeded through until he arrived at Neville's name. "Mr. Longbottom, you will improve your scores this year, unaided, " a scathing glare at Hermione, "or the consequences will be dire indeed."
Harry braced himself as Malfoy approached his name and sure enough, he paused long and hard before uttering, "Harry Potter," as if it were the most disgusting word in the world, "your antics will not be tolerated in any form this year."
"Ronald Weasley, I have also been warned to be wary of your antics."
Ron gritted his teeth but refused to take the bait.
Draco was positively beaming.
"Longbottom." Lucius snapped.
Neville gulped hard. "Y-yes sir?"
"You will not be sitting next to Ms. Granger in this class. To ensure you do not cheat, you will be sitting next to Mr. Malfoy."
Neville nodded and gulped again. Then he rose with a look of abject terror on his face and dragged his supplies over to Draco's table. He sat down slowly, shaking visibly.
Hermione watched him go with a worried expression on her face, but had to return her attention to the board as Lucius began his lesson in clipped tones. "Today we will be making the highly dangerous Feraliques Potion. It is a cure for petrifaction but if used incorrectly it can turn a person in to a walking rotted corpse. A zombie for want of a better term."
Class went fairly smoothly from there on in. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Gryffindors were very careful to follow every instruction and do nothing that might antagonize Lucius.
There were only fifteen minutes left in class and Harry was starting to think they all might just make it. It was then that Neville realized he was missing one of his ingredients.
He had been rummaging through his cauldron for several minutes to no avail. He set his face carefully and turned to Draco to ask softly. "Could I borrow some ferret fur? I'm all out."
Malfoy's face turned an absolutely obscene shade of red. Shaking with rage he scooped up an assortment of red, orange, and green powders from his supplies and threw them into the roiling concoction in Neville's cauldron. He then slipped off of his seat in a fluid little motion, one that strongly resembled a ferret slinking into its hole, and threw himself away from the desk.
Neville was just deciding to follow suit when his cauldron exploded. A gout of acid green liquid shot upward like a nuclear geyser and showered down onto Neville and his supplies. Everywhere the liquid hit, bile green crystals began to form. They cut into Neville's flesh and blood began to seep down his body to pool on the floor. The transformation was grotesque and Malfoy's triumphant expression turned a bit sickly as he witnessed the results of his handy work.
Just then, Lucius came bolting out of the supply closet holding a glowing purple vial in his hand. "Stand back!" he bellowed. (This seemed a rather pointless command since most of the class had already backed as far away from the lethal crystals as they could) He then threw the vial at Neville's feet where it exploded into a cloud of dense purple smoke. The smoke vanished quickly and Neville stumbled out of the haze with torn cloths, bleeding badly.
Malfoy threw his arms around his staggering student and hurried him towards the door. "You are dismissed early! Fifty points from Gryffindor!" Then he and Neville vanished, presumably headed for the hospital wing.
Malfoy picked himself slowly off of the floor and brushed himself off carefully. "That idiot should be me careful." He sneered.
Ron clambered over a tabled and had his wand threateningly poised in Malfoy's face. "You wouldn't dare." Draco hissed.
Ron nodded, "For once you're right Malfoy." He slowly lowered his wand and turned around. Malfoy looked relieved.
Then Ron spun around and slammed his fist into Draco's stomach. Draco made a rushing sound as all the air left his lungs and dropped like a stone. His eyes rolled back with a groan and he lay still.
Ron turned calmly back to Harry and Hermione. "Shall we?"
* * *
Malfoy must have gotten into some sort of trouble with his father because he did not look at all pleased when they saw him at dinner that night. Any joy they might have gotten from this however, was unfortunately dampened by the fact that Neville was still confined to the hospital wing.
During dinner, Harry decided he would take his Firebolt out for a little pre-season ride. One where he wouldn't have to worry about strategies or upcoming matches. He asked Ron and Hermione if either of them would like to come but Ron shook his head and explained that Hermione was going to help him find a book in the library he needed for their History of Magic essay.
Harry was rather disappointed but shrugged it off. His disappointment vanished completely as he kicked off into the deepening night sky. His training robes kept him warm in the cool fall wind and he soared upwards as the last traces of daylight began to seep slowly into the west. the stars emerged slowly and soon the clear night was strewn with millions of the tiny diamonds. The new moon meant the sky was completely devoid of its light and since Hogwarts was so far from any Muggle cities, there was no light pollution to spoil the idyllic sky.
Harry was used to the diluted night sky near London and marveled that this was what it must have looked like thousands of years ago. He turned his attention back towards more terrestrial realms and zoomed away from the Quidditch green and back towards the cheery lights of the castle.
He flew up past the Gryffindor dormitories and continued along over the roof, pausing once or twice to dip through arches in some of the larger courtyards, then back across and upward, until he was flying hundreds of feet above the still lake. He did a slow roll and observed several students walking along the shore of the lake, most in pairs and walking very slowly indeed.
Harry continued his roll and turned it into a dive towards the surface of the lake. He pulled up sharply mere feet above the inky black waters and tightened his grip on the handle, rocketing back towards the shore. Twin walls of water kicked up in his wake and he urged his broom faster still. As he approached the shore he climbed sharply and launched back into the night.
He slowed a bit as he approached the castle again and set himself for a long, graceful arc around the north tower. As he got near the tower, a strange whistling sound violently grabbed his attention. Pure flying instinct took over as he kicked himself upwards a few feet to narrowly avoid a violent gust of wind. He dropped back down to avoid another, stronger gust. He rolled in closer to the tower in hopes of shielding himself from the vicious cross-wind he seemed to have gotten caught in, but two more gusts fired towards him in rapid succession. He tried moving above the tower but no matter how high he went, the closer he came to the tower, the more lethal the winds became.
Harry began to tire a bit and was just preparing to drop away from the tower entirely if he could manage it, when a particularly nasty blast of air caught the tail of his broom and spun him around where he sat. The next blast caught him completely unawares and landed full on his center of gravity. The racing broom kicked to the side so hard it nearly ripped itself from Harry's grip.
A less experienced flyer might very well have found himself plummeting to a very messy landing indeed but Harry managed to hang on and found himself thrown far enough from the tower that the wind subsided. Rattled, Harry dropped down towards the courtyard and back in the direction of the Quidditch field.
As he passed over the courtyard something happened to make him pull up short, unsure if he had seen correctly. A man had appeared in the courtyard. At first, Harry thought he had stepped out of the shadows. But then another appeared beside him. Both were wearing flowing black robes. Harry descended silently and hovered above them without a sound.
Three more appeared in quick succession and the first to arrive turned to his companions.
"Find the boy and kill him. Voldemort wants the head. If you encounter either of our insiders, tell them to stay out of the way." With that all five vanished again with five tiny pops.
Harry felt his stomach drop as the first scream tore through the night.
Author Note: Hopes you likes it. Flamers accepted.
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