Chapter Twelve
Professor Snape banged his way into the classroom in a swirl of black, batlike robes. "There will be no silly wand-waving in my class," he intoned in a deep baritone voice. "I will teach the smartest of you to make potions that will bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. The dumbest of you will be lucky to get F's until I can kick you out when you don't pass your O.W.L.s. Take out your cauldrons."
Araminta hurried to put her cauldron up. She knew the Daddy Draco and the Potions professor were good friends, but Daddy Harry and the Potions professor...
He swooped down upon her desk. "Miss...Malfoy-Potter. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
"In your supply closet. I bet you have a dozen in there." Snape frowned, but Araminta plunged ahead. "They're stones taken from the stomach of a goat, and they can work as an antidote for most poisons. Betcha have to keep them around to keep kids from killing themselves, eh,. Snape?"
"Don't sass me," said the Potions Master. "What if I asked you the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"I'd ask you the difference between garlic and a cross." The class snickered, and Snape got angry. He raised his voice over the crowd and asked another question.
"What would you get if you mixed asphodel and wormwood?"
"Hmmm, let me see...you were going to have that for tea, right?" Araminta posed with one finger on her cheek and ignored the worried looks Blake and Selene were shooting at her. "Oh, silly me, that's the Draught of Living Death. You must have already had some."
The class's snickers turned into full-blown laughter.
"Silence!" Snape screamed. "I will not have this in my classroom. Five points from your House, Potter-Malfoy."
"Which one, Professor Snape? All the other teachers have been giving--or taking--five points from each. Do you really want to take five points from Slytherin?"
Snape just grumbled and pointed to the instructions written on the board. An hour later, when Araminta turned in a perfect vial of potion, he refused to look at her.
"C'mon," said Selene. "Dinner, finally!"