A.N. I'm beating J.K. Rowling to press by three hours! Go me! Anyway, here's the whole thing, all of it. Please read it, I'm terribly proud of having finished it.
18. Drops of Vengeance
That Saturday afternoon after the Quidditch match, (Slytherin had smashed Ravenclaw) those students who were allowed took the first trip to Hogsmeade of the year. Ron, Harry, and Hermione wandered absently through the shops, buying trinkets or stopping to chat with friends.
After about an hour, Harry suggested that they take a walk up by the shrieking shack. As usual, it was deserted. Ron and Hermione sat down next to each other with their backs to the house's south wall and Harry crouched down facing them.
Hermione arched an eyebrow, "So now will you boys tell me what it was you found out the other night?"
Ron shrugged, "Not much really."
Harry nodded in agreement, "All Malfoy did was complain about not having any instructions when his dad left."
Hermione sighed, "That's it?" She blinked, "Well, it's not all bad. I mean, you said he's not receiving instructions right?"
"Mm-hmm," Harry replied, "Though he did mention something called the Council of the Basilisk. Any idea what that is?"
Hermione shook her head but Ron perked up a bit. "That sounds a bit like the Order of the Phoenix."
"What's that?"
Ron shrugged, "I don't know, Dad mentioned it once by mistake and wouldn't tell us what it was."
Hermione shivered in the chill Autumn air. "Well that seems to have been a dead run. We'll just have to try something else. Let's forget it for now and get back to the castle."
* * *
The month of November dragged past, assignments grew harder and curriculums became more complicated. After Ravenclaw was crushed by Slytherin they faced off against Hufflepuff two weeks later and defeated them in a drawn out three hour match that was barely won by chaser Cho Chang. Harry dutifully kept his mouth shut about his injury, sticking to the story of an illness that had kept him bed-ridden.
December arrived and found the castle covered in about half a foot of snow. As Harry trudged up the slippery slope from Herbology one morning he wistfully remembered watching Hagrid pulling Christmas trees from the dark forest through the freezing whiteness. However, despite his letter in October, there was no sign of Hagrid returning yet.
Potions was being taught by a succession of interim professors and it was one of these that gave Harry and his friends their first glimpse of the fabled Drops of Vengeance.
The man was tall and thin, he might have been imposing if he had been possessed of a more authoritative voice or he did not spend the entire class period shivering in the frigid dungeon air. A shock of peppery brown hair was swept back behind his ears and watery blue eyes peered out from the nervous face.
"Good Afternoon, I am correct that this is fifth-year Gryffindor and Slytherin for Double Potions?" There were a few nods of confirmation. "Very Good, I am Professor Dameron." He paged through a sheaf of notes on his desk. "It seems that your curriculum has been a bit sporadic since the untimely departure of your previous professor." The room was silent as he spent a few more minutes paging through various reports and notes. Someone in the back cleared their throat but other than that there was no sound but the shuffling of parchment.
"Ah yes, here we are, Drops of Vengeance."
The class perked up in interest at the word vengeance and Hermione gave a little gasp that led Harry to believe she had a better idea than most what these fascinating sounding things were.
She leaned over and whispered to him, "This is a very advanced potion, I'm surprised its part of our curriculum."
Professor Dameron cleared his throat. "Now then, this is a very complex and rare Potion, I'm not going to tell you its uses until after a suitable batch has been completed. Drops of Vengeance are considered a controlled substance, the only reason that it is included in your instruction is that the main ingredient will likely never be accessible to you once you've left this school." At this he pulled a large black case onto the table and after rummaging around in it for a moment, pulled out a large bowl that appeared to be filled with seaweed.
"Seaweed?" Malfoy drawled, "Oh, very rare indeed." Crab and Goyle snickered a appreciatively.
Professor Dameron cleared his throat once, "Ten points from Slytherin, talking out of turn."
"What?" Malfoy was stunned, he had never lost points in Potions before. "You can't do-"
"Ten more points from Slytherin, talking out of turn."
Draco's mouth hung open in stunned surprise. He looked sorely tempted to bring his father into the equation, a tactic usually sure to quell a troublesome professor, but that of course would open the discussion to where Mr. Malfoy had gone. With a murderous look at Professor Dameron, Draco subsided.
"Thank you. Now, this is not, as your ill-mannered classmate surmised, ordinary seaweed. It is the mane of a water dwelling creature known as a Kelpie. Kelpies are rare, cunning, and dangerous, their manes are therefor, in decidedly short supply. You will each take one strand of Kelpie mane, strain it to separate as much water as possible, then draw the fibers so they separate. You will lay them out to dry on your table until the rest of the solution is complete." Here he picked up a piece of chalk and wrote out each ingredient as he mentioned it on the slate at the front of the room. "First boil the water you strained until the moisture has evaporated leaving only salts in the bottom of your cauldron, then add half a cauldron of cold water, one vial of goat blood, three pinches of Salamander Scales and three bunches of dried wolfsbane. Stir until the potion is blue throughout, then add one fiber of Kelpie mane per minute while continuing to stir. Once you have all reached this point, I will give you further instructions on how to distill the actual drops needed to complete the potion." With that he returned to his desk and after doling out a clump of mane to each student, sat down and was silent. The class uneasily turned to their cauldrons to follow his directions.
Hermione spared a few worried glances over to Neville who was having trouble with the straining if his Kelpie mane. "I hope he remembers to strain it completely."
Harry glanced up from where he was carefully drawing out single strands of slimy fiber. "At least this potion doesn't call for ferret fur.
After about half an hour of careful measuring and mixing, most of the cauldrons were giving off an electric blue glow as the luminous potions within reached their final stages. Harry added his final strand of Kelpie fiber and watched as the glow intensified.
Most of the class seemed to be done without too many problems except for Neville who had added too much Wolfsbane, his potion had turned completely clear and was giving off strong and heady vapors.
Professor Dameron came over with a small clear glass and scooped a shot of Neville's potion into it. Neville watched apprehensively as he flicked a tiny flame to life at the tip of his wand and touched it to the surface of the potion in the glass. There was a dull roar and the top of the glass was wreathed in brilliant green flames as the potion quickly burned away. Professor Dameron uttered a laugh and asked the class to step back, then he lit the potion itself on fire and watched it as a cauldron full of green flames roared away to nothing.
"Young man," he said turning to Neville, "You would be quite popular among the giants for you have just succeeded in creating their favorite type of Vodka. You'll understand me not allowing anyone to test the potion I'm sure."
With that he turned to Malfoy's cauldron and arched an eyebrow, "Draco Malfoy?"
Malfoy, still feeling slighted and rebellious managed a sullen nod. Dameron seemed not to notice. "You currently have the highest grade in the class, and your potion seems to be correct so far, therefor, we will use it to demonstrate the final steps and you may choose the person who it is used on."
Harry felt his stomach sink as Malfoy shot him a malicious grin. Again, professor Dameron seemed not to notice. Instead he held up what was perhaps the smallest vial that Harry had ever seen. "When the drops have finished distilling, there will barely be enough to fill this vial. Now, all of you, watch closely." He took a piece of rock salt from Malfoy's ingredient tray and dropped it into the cauldron, something flashed and the level of liquid in the cauldron began to lower very quickly, soon there was only a piece of blue salt in the bottom of the cauldron, it was a bout the size of Harry's fist.
"What I want you to do now Draco, is to grind that into as fine a powder as you can with your mortar and pestle." While Draco set to that with malevolent glee, Dameron turned to the rest of the class and continued. "The potion you all prepared condenses and crystallizes when it comes into contact with salt. When that crystal is powdered, we will add it to fresh water, which will then be evaporated to leave the salt behind, the evaporated moisture will be captured and crystallized again. This will go one until the remaining solution can not be crystallized any further." He turned back to Draco. I will attend to the distillation over the next week. Who would you like to test it on when we next have class.
Malfoy grinned but pretended to consider for a moment. His eyes lit up in mock surprise as if an idea had occurred to him. Harry steeled himself and sure enough… "I believe I'll try it on Potter."
"Well then, that's settled," the professor glanced at his watch, "This class is over, till next week."
The students gathered their things and made their way out into the halls. Harry tried to avoid looking at Malfoy's grinning face. Ron caught up to Neville and said, "Whatever you did to that Potion, don't tell Fred and George."
Neville shook his head glumly, "Don't worry, I've already forgotten."
Hermione gave Harry a sympathetic squeeze on the shoulder. "Don't worry Harry, if the professor's letting it be tested on a student, it can't be that dangerous."
