Disclaimer - All JKR's, nothing mine! Except for a few characters I added.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - I know I'm late and this is neither a Friday nor Saturday. No, today is the 24th of December, though and that is when we Austrians celebrate Christmas. Yep, there'll be presents under the tree for me this evening. (Nope, no stockings, nothing tomorrow morning.) So this chapter is my Christmas gift to you. Hope you like it.
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Chapter 14: Gummy Bears and Bad Smells
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Professor Vector turned out to be a disappointment. All Arithmancy students had been present and the one student that had gone to the bathroom at the beginning of the lesson had been a Muggle born Ravenclaw girl.
"Larissa." Professor Vector volunteered. "Larissa Erold. I very much doubt that she'd kill anyone."
Severus could only nod in confirmation. The girl was a harmless bookworm who tended to get upset at the slightest sign of discord in the classroom. She was almost more peace loving than the Hufflepuffs.
"That leaves only Trelawney's class." Draco remarked when Severus reported his results back to him.
Severus frowned. "I just can't shake the feeling that we're missing something. There's some clue or suspect that we've overlooked, but it's definitely not Larissa Erold."
"Do you want to go over the seventh year again?" Draco suggested. "We could add the Ravenclaws to the list."
"No, I don't think it's the Ravenclaws. We have Neel Ferris on the list already." Severus sighed. "Maybe it's something about the Hufflepuffs?"
Whatever it was wouldn't leave Severus alone all through Ancient Runes class. Professor Rosetta luckily didn't mind his being distracted, though. At least that kept him from starting any discussions with Hermione Granger, who was bad enough on her own.
In Latin class Severus even started to draw a quick sketch of the castle trying to estimate the time each student would have taken to reach the Transfigurations corridor from whatever class they'd had just before the attack. Even if he'd run all the way the traitor could not have made it back down into the Potions classroom before the start of the next lesson. He had to have been on scene to push over the armour.
If he'd still had his books in Potions class the next class coming in had to have noticed. There was room enough in the old kitchens, but Filch hadn't supplied that many worktables, so somebody would have been likely to have need of the traitor's table.
That meant that the traitor would have had to take his bag with him when he'd left Potions. That excluded going to the bathroom or an injury as excuse for leaving. A student so badly in need of Poppy's assistance that he couldn't wait until after class wouldn't bother to collect his books first and usually wouldn't go alone either. His classmates would find that odd and remember later when they heard about the attack on Potter. And you didn't take your bag with you, if you expected to return in a minute or two and continue your work, as would be the case with a student leaving for a bathroom break.
So what unobtrusive reasons were there for taking your bag with you?
Severus dismissed the idea of the headmaster or another teacher asking for the student's presence right away. It would require an accomplice outside the classroom to pretend to be said teacher and send the request, most likely via floo since owl post was rather unusual between teachers and actually showing up inside the class would require a really good disguise and excellent acting. A face in the flames could easily be mistaken for somebody else, if you weren't facing it directly and the conversation could be kept quiet enough so the students wouldn't be able to make out what was really said.
But the call would arouse the other students' curiosity and they'd be sure to ask questions about it afterwards.
The simplest excuse to leave would be the end of the lesson, of course, but would there have been enough time to make it to the Transfigurations corridor?
At an all out run, perhaps, Severus decided. But what way could the traitor have had to know when Harry would be passing the suit of armour? If Harry had left class at the same time as the traitor, he would have been well past the prepared trap by the time the traitor was in position, even if he'd been walking at a very leisurely pace.
An accomplice to keep Harry from leaving Charms class too soon? But who? Definitely not Professor Flitwick himself.
Another student then? A fellow Gryffindor would have been going the same way as Harry, so they could have talked on the way. The rest of the class had been Ravenclaws, while the traitor, if he had been in Potions would have to be a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Severus doubted that any of them would trust a member of another house enough to assist them with murder.
Unless of course, said member of another house was a sibling. To his knowledge none of the seventh years had a sibling in sixth year, though.
That left the class just coming into Charms, the fifth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. A large portion of those had been in Care for Magical Creatures, though and almost all the rest in Muggle Studies. Neither group would have been able to guarantee that they'd arrive in time to catch Harry and the entire fifth year was cleared.
Still it couldn't hurt to check what fifth years didn't take either Care for Magical Creatures or Muggle Studies.
Just as they entered Potions class another possibility hit Severus. If the traitor had been working at one of the back tables near the pillars or one of the many dark corners of the room, he might have just quietly packed up and pushed his bag behind the pillar, or into the corner before excusing himself to go to the bathroom.
The bag would have been out of the way, so nobody might have noticed it standing quietly in the dark and, since Lucius would have been in on the plan, the traitor could have come back to collect it after all the other students were gone. If he'd left a second bag with whatever items he absolutely needed for his next class hidden somewhere near the Transfigurations corridor he wouldn't even have been in danger of showing up unequipped for his next class and he had to have known that classes would be cancelled soon anyway. An empty bag might have sufficed to fool people into thinking he had his books with him.
That idea spoke against using curtains to create small side rooms to this classroom as well, Severus thought. It would be even easier to hide an object, if you could just push it through a curtain and out of sight.
Draco drew him out of his thoughts.
"When do we talk to Neville?" the boy asked eagerly.
Severus shot him a disgruntled glance. "After we're rid of Potter. Now try to behave naturally."
They set up their cauldrons and Severus let out Greenie who went right off to explore the table. There were all the usual delicious treats and interesting plant parts, the nasty hot cauldrons he'd long since learned to avoid sniffing at, the weird metal and glass objects, the occasional leather bound book and . . . What was that smell?
Greenie followed his nose to find some strange soft substance that was almost like cloth, but slightly stiffer and made strange sounds when touched. And it formed a bag full of little colourful things that smelled very unusual, but not bad at all. From his long time with humans, a whole year in fact, Greenie had learned a lot of things. Among them was the knowledge that a lot of strange things were edible, even if most hedgehogs wouldn't expect them to be.
If something didn't smell bad, didn't run away and wasn't hot, one way to explore it more closely was to bite in.
At random Greenie picked an orange one and gave it a bite. It had an odd taste, but Greenie had already eaten such weird things as chocolate and cookies. This wasn't all that different. He finished the object off with another bite.
"Greenie!" Draco yelled and pulled him away quickly. "Severus, he ate a gummy bear!"
"Sniff?" asked Greenie looking up at Draco's pale face in surprise.
"We'll have to take him to Madame Pomfrey." Draco stated after staring into the hedgehog's little dark green eyes for a moment.
Severus blinked, looked at Greenie, the bag of gummy bears, then Draco. "Why? Albus said they were edible and Greenie's never had digestive problems before. Not even after taking bites out of books and chocolate frog wrappers. I don't think a little gummy bear will do him any harm."
Draco took a deep breath and felt very foolish. "We still shouldn't let him eat up our new Potions project." he declared.
"Probably not." Severus agreed after a moment of regarding the bag of gummy bears. "We might never get any more of these, after all. Pull over an extra chair to put them on."
Unlike the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw class the sixth year Slytherin/Gryffindor Potions class always had extra chairs available, which was very practical, if you found that you required a side table for extra ingredients, or a hedgehog cage. It had nothing to do with the Slytherins, though. It was the Gryffindor class that, with only eight students, was unusually small. Normally each house got ten, sometimes up to twelve students each year, but for some reason their year had been an unusually weak one.
Severus assumed that it was because they had been born during the end of the Voldemort war. Too many had died, before they'd had children, while others had had children that had then been killed along with them. Again others probably had decided not to have children during the war at all.
That theory also explained why the fourth year classes were particularly big. After the fall of Voldemort the future had looked perfect for children. Few people were expecting Voldemort to ever return and it had seemed like the children born then could look forward to a happy and long life of peace and safety. Sometimes Severus wondered what their parents felt now that Voldemort was back and the second war only beginning before their children had even taken their OWLs.
"What's that?" Neville asked wide eyed at the sight of the gummy bears.
"A gift from the headmaster." Severus answered with a shrug. "Apparently some Muggle sweets, but we got them to test out their magical uses."
"Magical uses?" Harry asked surprised. "Of sweets?"
"There is a very common medical potion that requires three chocolate frogs as ingredients." Severus pointed out.
"Huh?" made Draco.
"Oh, nothing you would know, but I'm sure all the girls are familiar with the potion." Severus grinned.
"If it's such a common potion, why haven't we brewed it in class, yet?" Harry asked while throwing a fistful of unevenly cut mandrake slices into his potion.
Severus winced at the sight wondering how long Harry could go without another disaster even if he didn't sabotage the soup at all. "You think I'd let you lot brew something that includes chocolate? Ron would probably have eaten the entire supply before the water would have started boiling in your cauldrons. A complete waste of ingredients."
Despite the fact that he was probably supposed to defend his best friend, Harry couldn't suppress a snort of amusement.
"So how do we go about determining the magical qualities of the rubber bears?" Neville asked poking a yellow bear that had rolled out of the bag when Draco had put them down.
"I could try putting one into my soup as a taste giving ingredient." Harry suggested.
Severus glared at him. "You can't just throw an ingredient of unknown magical qualities into a potion like that. It's extremely dangerous. What if it causes an explosion when combined with mandrake roots? Or it could turn poisonous with lizard livers."
Harry jumped at the thought and the three lizard livers he'd been holding slipped out of his hand. He quickly picked the first two off the floor and threw them into the cauldron, but then looked around helplessly.
"The only safe way to start this is to put one gummy bear into a cauldron containing only water and heat it up very slowly and cautiously." Severus explained.
"Have any of you seen my lizard liver?" Harry asked into the expectant silence as the three boys watched the yellow gummy bear dissolve in the hot water.
"It fell into Neville's jar of fly wings." Draco answered distractedly.
"Oh thanks." Harry said politely and grabbed the jar.
"It what?" gasped Neville. "My fly wings!"
Harry picked the lizard liver out of the jar and threw it into his cauldron which complained with an angry hiss.
"Oh, yuck!" Neville declared at the sight of his now very sticky fly wings. "Those were supposed to last me at least a year."
"So, what's the problem?" Harry asked stirring his cauldron. "Just add some water and they'll un-stick pretty fast."
"No they won't." Severus commented while taking a sample of his 'potion'. "And the lizard blood will affect their magical qualities anyway. They're ruined, Neville. Don't even try to save them. They'll only cause your potions to explode again."
"Did you just throw that lizard liver into your potion with fly wings sticking to it?" Draco asked Harry warily.
"Um . . . yes, why not?" Harry blushed suddenly remembering exactly why not.
"Will that really explode?" Draco turned to Severus while slowly inching away from Harry's cauldron.
"That depends on the number of fly wings." Severus answered calmly while adding a single drop of fairy blood to the dissolved gummy bear. "It can't be a big explosion with all the mandrake in there, though."
Relieved Draco returned to watching Severus' experiment which was now turning orange despite the fact that the gummy bear had been yellow.
"Harmless." Severus muttered and added some more fairy blood.
Neville was still staring morosely at his ruined fly wings. "Gran won't be happy about this at all. She's already had to replace so many cauldrons."
"I'll replace that stupid jar, Neville." Harry sighed as his potion suddenly turned gelatinous. "You don't even have to tell your Gran."
"Thanks Harry." Neville beamed glad that he wouldn't have to face his formidable grandmother.
Harry looked up to smile back at Neville and Severus used that moment to throw a tiny object into Harry's cauldron.
Draco blinked. "A pea?" he mouthed at Severus.
Severus nodded and smirked.
A few moments later Harry added a spoonful of powdered tree bark to his potion to restore it to a more liquid state and a puff of smoke rose from his cauldron. All around him his fellow students started to cough and gag.
"Eugh, whatever is that smell?" Seamus commented from the table right in front of them then quickly tried to cover his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his robe.
Lucius put down his paper and stalked over to them. "What the hell is going o. . ." he started, but broke off when he caught a whiff of the smoke. "Who did that?" he demanded instead.
Severus, Draco and Neville wordlessly pointed at Harry while each keeping a hand over his nose.
Lucius glared at Harry.
"It's not me." Harry protested. "It's my potion. I guess I happened on a slightly smelly combination this time, but it hasn't created any weather phenomena, yet and it didn't even explode."
"Wingardium Leviosa!" With a murderous glare Lucius stabbed his wand at the only free worktable in class as if it were a dagger.
The poor table jerked into the air, shot through the whole room and slammed forcefully down in the corner that was farthest away from the teacher's desk.
Lucius' eyes returned to Harry still gleaming dangerously.
Harry took an uneasy step back.
"Take your cauldron and move back there before I strangle you. Potter!" Lucius roared. "And if I catch only a hint of that smell again you'll wish that assassin had gotten you." He didn't elaborate further, but somehow none of the students really wanted to know.
Harry quickly grabbed his cauldron and took off forgetting his book bag and most of his laid out ingredients.
"He'll be back." Draco commented with a nod towards the ingredients.
"Maybe." Severus amended remembering the frightened look on Harry's face when Lucius had stabbed the table.
"Your father wouldn't really leave Harry to the traitor, would he?" Neville asked Draco a little nervously.
"I wouldn't bet on it. " Draco answered with a thoughtful look at Lucius.
"He can be terribly rash when he's angry." Severus tried to tone down the effect of Draco's words. "And he's particularly irascible at the moment. I think teaching doesn't agree with him."
"But to the point that he'd help a murderer?" Neville shivered.
"You saw the last attack, didn't you?" Severus asked almost kindly.
"But so did you. " Neville reminded them.
"Not really." corrected Draco seeing his chance. "We only heard the noise from around the corner and when we ran out into the Transfigurations corridor it was already all over and Harry was lying on the ground between scattered pieces of armour. You must have seen what really happened, though."
Neville nodded. "Yes, it was terrible. One moment we were just walking down the corridor feeling safe and protected as always and then suddenly. . . We'd just had Charms and were happily headed for Transfigurations. Harry was right in front of me with Hermione who was trying to explain something about the DADA homework to him."
"To Potter?" Draco smirked. "Not Weasley?"
"No, Ron doesn't really like it when she starts nagging about homework." Neville shook his head. "He wasn't with them at the time. He was somewhere behind me with Dean and Seamus. You see they'd been talking about girls and Hermione went off in a huff, because of their 'respectless attitude' as she said and Harry went after her to calm her down while Ron stayed to hear the rest of the story. "
"And you weren't with either group?" Draco asked a little confused.
"Well, I'm not exactly popular with my classmates." Neville blushed. "Not clever enough for Hermione, not daring enough for Harry and Ron and . . . well, not womaniser enough for Dean and Seamus, I suppose. I'm just not cool, I guess. I. . . well, Hermione was right in a way. It was embarrassing to hear the way they were talking, but I didn't think it'd be a good idea to tell them so, so I just quietly walked on on my own."
"Okay, so there was Harry and Hermione, then you behind them and then Ron, Dean and Seamus." Draco summed up eagerly. "And then? Did you see anybody else?"
"Well, there were a lot of people in the corridor. It's always very busy there between classes." Neville said. "I remember seeing Alice for a moment. I thought maybe I should wave at her, but I don't really know her, so I didn't and just walked on and suddenly the armour jerked and just smashed down all over Harry and Hermione. Hermione screamed and jumped back, but fell and then the armour was in pieces and they were all ricocheting through the corridor and Dean and the others were beside me all trying to help, but the pieces were still hitting and cutting us. Dean managed to grab a hold of Hermione and pull her back, but she shook him off and ran back in to help Harry and Dean was cut in the arm and screamed and for a moment we thought Harry was dead, but then he sat up and everything was okay." Neville gulped. "Only it isn't really okay, because the traitor will try again until he finally kills Harry."
"No, he won't." Severus assured Neville. "The headmaster and all the teachers are after him. They'll catch him soon, just like they caught those girls that stole books from the restricted section."
"And those students that took drugs." Draco added.
"Yes, but there are still books missing that were stolen by somebody else and I bet there are more drugs in the school too." Neville said. "And they only got caught, because they were looking for the traitor. I bet if they hadn't been, they'd never have noticed the missing books or found the drugs."
"Well, maybe you could help." Draco suggested. "Didn't you see anybody suspicious? Was there somebody standing next to the armour?"
Neville shook his head. "No, I already told you it just jerked and fell. I bet the traitor just threw that severing charm at the ropes from afar."
Severus shook his head. "It wouldn't have fallen just because the ropes were gone. They're just additional supports in case somebody bumps into the armour. There must have been a push or pull."
"No," Neville insisted. "There wasn't anybody near the armour when Harry walked past it. He was the closest."
"Maybe the armour was pushed by a spell then." Severus threw in.
"Yes, did you see anybody cast a spell, or maybe somebody who wasn't supposed to be there?" Draco pushed.
"No, but I only saw Harry and Hermione right before me and a group of smaller students coming down the corridor from the other direction." Neville shook his head again. "Most of the people in the corridor were behind me and by the time I turned around it was all already over and almost everyone had pulled their wands trying to help."
"But was there anybody who wasn't supposed to be there?" Draco repeated.
Neville blinked at him. "What do you mean not supposed to be there? It's an ordinary corridor that's open to everybody."
"Well, were there any students that didn't have class anywhere near there?" Draco explained.
Neville stared at him. "Do you really expect me to know everybody's timetables by heart?"
"Of course not." Severus assured him. "But you might have noticed somebody there that you don't usually meet at that time. And those students that had class nearby would most likely have been walking in a group. If there was someone there with no year- and housemates around, that could be suspicious."
Neville closed his eyes trying to picture the scene in his mind. "Well, I already told you I saw Alice, but she's in your class and we were both headed for Transfigurations. Those smaller students I saw were walking in a group, though I didn't recognise anyone I knew. They looked like they were all in the same year, Hufflepuffs, I think."
"That's probably the third years." Severus threw in. "The third year Slytherins were just coming out of Latin class and I think they have that with the Hufflepuffs."
Neville looked at him in surprise. "You know the third years' schedule?"
"No, I saw some come out of the classroom when I arrived." Severus lied quickly.
"There were some Gryffindor third years behind me when I turned around." Neville continued.
"Then the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw third years probably had Latin right after the Slytheris and Hufflepuffs." Severus suggested. "The two classes of the same year are often held right after each other."
"So all third years had reason to be there, as did all our year mates." Draco summed up.
"Not quite." Severus disagreed. "The Hufflepuffs had DADA with us, then headed down to Potions class. They wouldn't have come through the Transfigurations corridor."
"Then so would the Ravenclaws." Draco added.
"But they were coming out of Charms with us." Neville disagreed. "They had to go past Transfigurations class to get to the stairs."
"Okay," Draco conceded. "So did you see any Hufflepuff sixth years?"
Neville shook his head. "No, but I saw your Quidditch captain. He was yelling at a girl I don't know. She looked like she might have been one of his classmates, but I'm not sure."
"Any more seventh years?" Draco asked.
Neville shrugged. "Maybe. I'm not sure."
Severus didn't say anything this time so Neville wouldn't get suspicious again, but he knew Stephan had been going to History of Magic class.
"Not sure." Draco repeated. "Not sure about Slytherin seventh years or seventh years of all houses?"
"All houses." Neville confirmed. "I wasn't really paying attention to that at the time."
Severus suppressed a sigh and picked out the next gummy bear for testing. The Slytherin and Ravenclaw seventh years had to have been around, but the presence of one or more Hufflepuffs would have sufficed to prove Lucius' story about the entire class leaving late false. The Gryffindor seventh years wouldn't have been supposed to be there at all, as they should have headed outside for Herbology right after Potions. Well, Neville probably would have recognised and remembered his own housemates.
"You do realise that the traitor could have cast that charm from behind a corner, don't you?" Neville said suddenly. "It's what I would have done. Watch around the corner, then lean out and cast the charm as soon as Harry was in position and disappear right back into my side corridor or even better an unused classroom."
Severus shook his head. "A rarely used side corridor would be better." he argued. "The classrooms up there all have only one door, so the traitor would have had to leave through the Transfigurations corridor after the deed. In order to remain unseen, he would have had to wait until everybody had left and he'd have run the risk of the teachers checking the classrooms in their investigation. How would he have explained his presence? What if his next class would have started on schedule? If he used a side corridor he could just have walked away in the other direction. He might have been a little late for his next class, but could have made an excuse for a few minutes."
"Well, there wasn't anyone at the corner of the corridor we were in." Draco stated.
"Of course not." Severus agreed. "Any student heading downstairs or coming upstairs from or to the Transfigurations corridor would use that corridor. It's the fastest way to the stairs. It beats the whole purpose of hiding around the corner, if every student in the other corridor will see him and notice his odd behaviour."
"But all the corridors were busy." Neville frowned. "Which one could he have used?"
"Not the one leading towards the library and the Ravenclaw common room." Severus decided. "It might have been less busy than the stairs, but there's always the people visiting the library during study hour. The staircase going up to the Charms corridor was busy as well, but on the other end we have that dark corridor leading to the Hufflepuff common room. That's only ever busy at the beginning and end of lunch break and after the end of the last class of the day when the Hufflepuffs return to their dorms to drop off their bags."
"Then the traitor would be a Hufflepuff?" Neville asked doubtfully.
"Not necessarily." Severus answered. "The corridor is usually used only by Hufflepuffs, because it's rather out of the way for everybody else, but that doesn't mean other students can't use it if they want to."
"And it's far enough away from the armour that the teachers probably wouldn't have paid it much attention in their investigation." Draco added excitedly.
"In fact a student coming out of that corridor a little while after the attack and heading for the stairs down to DADA or Potions would never have passed the armour and probably have escaped notice quite easily." Severus agreed.
"So you think that's what happened?" Neville asked wide eyed.
"No, I think that might have happened." Severus corrected. "It's just as likely that it was one of the students walking openly through the corridor. If he had class there, why should he hide?"
"But then it could have been anyone." Neville said. "Alice, one of those third years, that Quidditch captain . . ."
Stephan, once again Stephan, but Severus also knew Gaia Ushton had been there, even if Neville, who probably didn't even know her, hadn't noticed her. And if Gaia had been there, Maximius Mattels could have as well.
Stephan or Maximius? Maximius or Stephan? It always seemed to get back down to that question and Severus couldn't make up his mind. Maybe he ought to search both boys' dorms again, but at least Maximius had to know that his trunk had already been searched once and his protections had been devious even before then. Was the risk of improved security measures on and around Maximius' trunk worth the possible gain from another search?
The gummy bears had been a little disappointing up to now as well. They clearly weren't poisonous, which Severus hadn't really expected from a sweet anyway. Food items were usually hard to convert into poisons. That also indicated that they weren't very likely to have much use in medical potions either, though.
Thankfully there didn't seem to be any tendencies to explode and they were useless as heating or cooling agents. Again qualities that were usually related, at least explosiveness was a typical side effect of heating agents.
Despite their bright colours the gummy bears didn't have any optical effects either and Severus was beginning to suspect that Harry might have been on the right track with his suggestion to test them for taste giving abilities. They didn't seem to have much of an effect on the smell of a potion, though, which wasn't exactly promising considering the close relation between the senses of smell and taste.
Just to distract himself Severus threw together a weak sparking solution that would give his classmates something to look at. As an afterthought he threw in a white gummy bear at the end, more as an excuse in case Lucius had actually been watching and knew what had gone into his cauldron. After all he'd told him he was exploring gummy bears today.
The potion hissed slightly louder than normal and then a shower of sparks flew up to the ceiling.
"Wow." Severus took a step back and regarded the results of his weak sparking solution. Somehow this looked a lot like extremely concentrated sparking solution.
"Um . . . wasn't this what you meant to do?" Neville asked a little nervously.
"Not quite like this." Severus responded absent-mindedly while scribbling away furiously on his note parchment. "Let's try this again with a different colour."
A sudden yelp of surprise from the back of the classroom made Draco and Neville spin around to check on Harry, who was surrounded by dark blue icicles that seemed to grow wherever the vapour rising from his cauldron touched a solid object.
"Don't worry, they're not even cold!" Harry called out to them after the first moment of surprise.
He broke one of the icicles off and gave it a cautious lick, then beamed.
"Strawberry!" he announced. "I think I'm finally on the right track."
"Harry!" Hermione yelled horrified. "Did you even run a poison test on them?"
That remark stopped the group of eager students that had already started to run over to try the icicles as well. Lucius gave an angry snort and stalked into the back corner to take a closer look.
"They still smell." he complained, but took a sample icicle for testing anyway. "Keep your notes, Potter. I will tell you whether your product is safe for consumption on Monday."
Severus was still working furiously on his sparking solution and ignoring Harry's icicles completely, so Draco took it upon himself to inspect them.
"An ice cave, Potter?" he asked with a sneer. "Didn't you promise us soup?"
"Get lost, Malfoy." Harry growled half-heartedly. He was feeling a little proud of his accomplishment, after all.
Draco broke off one of the smaller icicles and sniffed it. "Father is right. They do still smell. Are you sure you want to eat this?"
This time Harry reacted and earned himself a satisfactory deduction of twenty points from Lucius.
Draco brought the icicle with him when Lucius sent him back to his own worktable.
Meanwhile a red gummy bear ended up in the second cauldron of sparking solution. The sparks didn't rise quite as high this time, but there were even more of them.
Severus' eyes gleamed as he threw together a third batch intending to try it with a green bear, but unfortunately the bell rang before he could complete it.
"We need to test Potter's icicles." Draco informed Severus that evening. "It would be too convenient for Father to just tell him they're safe, if they're actually deadly poison."
"Too obvious." Severus disagreed. "He'd be under suspicion right away. I doubt he'd risk it and from the ingredients he used, it's highly unlikely he could have produced something that dangerous."
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He was getting too old to climb up into this remote part of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore thought to himself as he pulled the cord that hung down from the trapdoor that led up to Sybil Trelawney's classroom. He'd hoped she'd come down for one of the meals so he wouldn't have to make the climb, but Sybil was playing hermit again. The usual really. He just didn't like it.
In answer to his ring the trapdoor opened and the ladder fell down. Albus wondered whatever they'd do, if they ever happened to get a student with a bad leg or hand who wanted to study Divination. No wonder Sybil found it necessary to send somebody along whenever a student got dizzy in her overly perfumed and stuffy classroom. The ladder felt wobbly enough to him despite the fact that he was in perfect health considering his age.
Perhaps there was a way to force Professor Trelawney to move to a more convenient location, or at least replace the rope ladder with something a little more sturdy? Moving stairs would be nice, or maybe a teleporting mirror?
"Ah headmaster," Sybil greeted him from behind her crystal ball. "I had a feeling I'd get an important visit sometime this day."
"Of course, Sybil." Albus humoured her wondering what she'd really been doing. "Don't worry, I do not intend to impose on your time for long. You'll be able to continue your seeing in a few minutes."
Perhaps that was the reason for the ladder. The time it took a visitor to climb up into the classroom gave Sybil enough time to set up the pretence of being engaged in some divination in the classroom. With the doors to her office and private chambers closed there was no telling what she'd really been up to when he'd rung the bell.
"Of course, Headmaster." Sybil smiled at him. "I wasn't doing anything important anyway, just a routine check up."
"I don't suppose you've been able to get any further details about the traitor, yet?" It was always a good idea to play along with Trelawney's pretence of being a great diviner. It kept her in a good mood and made her relax her guard.
"Ah, in fact I have!" Sybil announced dramatically. "I have seen him in my scrying pool."
"Him?" Albus repeated faking eagerness. "The traitor is male then?"
"It appears so, though all I was able to see was a tall black robed figure that jumped up from behind the pedestal, pushed over the armour and ran. Actually it looked like he melted back into the wall like a shadow." Sybil hissed eyes wide. "He is powerful and dangerous, I tell you and determined that nothing will stop him. A creature of pure evil, he is. Find him, Headmaster, find him soon, or he will become invincible."
"The traitor, or Voldemort?" Albus asked with a slight smile.
"Do not take my warning lightly!" Trelawney threatened apparently unwilling to make up her mind about that question. "Harry Potter's life is in great danger. I have seen this coming for a long time. Oh yes, I have."
"Very well then, since you haven't been able to discover the traitor's name . . ."
Trelawney snorted. "Divination is a difficult science, a form of art even. You cannot force an answer to reveal itself at a snap of your fingers. The future is a foggy realm and only that which the gods will allow us to be seen is revealed."
"Of course, Sybil." Albus pacified her. "I am aware of the limits of your trade. I had only been hoping that perhaps you could give us a little more to go on. Unfortunately everyone of our current suspects is in the habit of wearing black quite often." He twinkled at her disarmingly. "Anyhow, as I was about to say, since you haven't been able to discover a name, yet, I'd like to know a little more about the class you had just before the first incident. Mr Ferris of Ravenclaw snuck out of class, I believe was what you told us, but what of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in that class?"
"The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, Headmaster?" Trelawney asked in surprise.
"Yes, they had Potions just before the latest incident and you know how unreliable Lucius is." Albus twinkled some more. "I just wish to double check those students to make sure they really have an alibi. Which ones do you remember from that lesson?"
"Well, Mr. Alcott and Mr. Harringer, of course." Sybil wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Two terrible louts, but then most of them are. Boys of sixteen and seventeen just don't have any appreciation for the spiritual. They are too restless, too immersed within the profane. Teenage hormones, I suppose."
"Ah," Albus nodded hoping that was close enough to the expected understanding. "Mr. Alcott and Mr. Harringer, though?"
"They sat right there." Trelawney pointed. "At that table. Whispering and laughing and sometimes even aping me all through the lesson. Mr. Highflyer of Hufflepuff sat with them, but at least wasn't quite that obnoxious. He occasionally joined in with the laughter, but I'll concede that that might have been involuntary on his part."
Dumbledore nodded an encouragement.
"Highflyer is a polite and quiet boy most of the time, though not much of a diviner." Trelawney elaborated. "He has concentration problems and an overactive imagination, but very rarely interrupts class. He might miss something due to daydreaming, but hardly ever distracts another student."
"So you are sure those three were present and didn't ever leave class for a bathroom break or something like that?"
"I'm sure they were here." Sybil confirmed. "And I don't think any of them went to the bathroom, but it has been quite a few weeks. I'm not sure I'd remember every bathroom break from back then."
Albus nodded. "Any other Gryffindors in that class?"
"Yes . . . yes there should be two girls as well." Trelawney thought for a moment. "Ms Humperding and Ms Miller, neither of them particularly noteworthy. They seem to be nice moderately interested girls, with no particular talent for my subject, but the inner eye is not something one can force. They do well enough with the theory. I think they sat over there, not too far from the boys, but closer to the front, probably hoping they'd still be able to hear me without offending their friends. With all the laughter of the boys, they probably didn't have much luck, though."
"I see." Albus suppressed a yawn. The fumes were beginning to get to him.
"That's all the Gryffindors." Sybil reported. "Ms Lost and Ms Hollster of Hufflepuff sat right here in the front. They are the most promising of the bunch, particularly Ms Lost has shown a lot of aptitude for reading cards and tea leaves. Ms Hollster seems to favour the crystal ball. Neither has shown a particular gift for reading the stars, yet, but I suspect that's more due to a lack of the basic knowledge they should have learned in Astronomy. Ever since Professor Sinistra has been teaching I've noticed a decline in my students' ability to read the stars. I'm not saying that I don't trust in her knowledge or will to teach, but perhaps her ability to pass on the knowledge is . . . limited."
Albus let the tirade wash over him. Too bad for Sybil that she hadn't found a way to blame her students' failures on Minerva, but then Transfiguration had absolutely nothing to do with Divination. He wondered whether he should point that out to Sybil, but decided against it.
Just why had he come here again?
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Aku Maru - Actually, for just one semester your German is excellent. Proper use of ie! (I was beginning to suspect that people whose first language is English are incapable of that.) Only little error: Kapital (capital . . . as in capitalism, not a city). I think you meant Kapitel (chapter). I don't think I could do that well in French and I had four years of that (unwillingly at the time, though). . . . I just wish I'd remembered to add Feliz Navidad for my Spanish speaking readers . . .
Marauder3Moony - Can't take credit for that e-mail, I'm afraid. It's an automatic function of ff.net. I only pay for the support services once a year and the alerts are taken care of. (Which is rather nice, since it's not only easier, but also faster than sending them out manually after uploading.)
Kayla Hemlock - Well, I've introduced a lot of people who aren't the traitor. One traitor, lots of red herrings . . . Oh dear! Did I really just call my poor Slytherins red?!
animegirl-mika - Vacations? Where in the world do they have a school holiday a month before Christmas?! I think I know a few children who'd like to move in with you . . .
Pam Briggs - Stephen? Oh, you mean Stephan. He's French, that's why he has an a. Yep, Stephan certainly is a suspect, has been from the very start, but is he the traitor? . . . Our two boys are hard at work thinking out suspects, but where that will lead them remains to be seen.
RowanRhys - Ah, but Percy is already back home and by now has even left the hospital, so Voldemort has nothing to blackmail the Weasleys with right now. . . . Yep, inter-house friendships are a necessity and I think with the shared classes, they should also come naturally unless here were too much prejudice and rivalry between the houses (Albus: house cup!). . . . My brave little Toughbook (Yes, that is the name of the model.) is already happily back home just like Percy and two years old today. (Happy birthday, my dear notebook and I hope we'll have many more years together. I've tried my Dad's newer and bigger notebook, but it just can't compare.)
Mala Zloca - Sticking close to Potter would be a suicide mission for a gummy bear I'm afraid. Remember he's Muggle raised and knows they're edible!
Colibi - Ron had no idea who Scabbers really was. No, whatever Ron does or doesn't do right or wrong has nothing at all to do with Wormtail.
JKH - Well, we all know Draco doesn't think too highly of Hufflepuffs, but then of course Sevi knows better.
JerseyPike - Sorry, that's why it's a mystery.
ME - I've got one argument against Seamus having a better opportunity to rig the plate: He hadn't yet reached the table when it exploded. If Seamus is the traitor he must have done it during lesson time just as any of the other suspects would. And somebody going into the great hall during lesson time would be noteworthy even if he goes to his own house's table.
black sayain - Thanks!
hummer - Yep, I love him, too. That's why he's back in this one. . . . Careful, no choking please! I'd like to keep you alive and healthy so you can read the rest of the fic!
EriEka127 - Thanks!
rhabeeb - Sorry, but HPHC is finished. any attempt to continue it would require me to break the style and destroy the picture. It's open ended on a hopeful note on purpose. I believe that Harry will find a way to dig himself out of his depression, but it will be a long way with many ups and downs. He's now able to accept the help of friends, both old and new, though and with heir help he'll find a way to win some former friends back. Others he will have to give up forever, but that's life.
Crye 4 Me - To clean up the room for him? After all Luci keeps Colin behind after every class as well. They can't both be the traitor, can they? (Yep, I know I'm annoying, but I have to protect my secret, or else it won't be a mystery anymore and this is the first time I've actually found a category for one of my fics.)
Iremione - The Erlkönig is a poem, not a song. It was just the first thing I could think of, because it was the only ballade I actually had to learn by heart in school. Our teacher thought she was doing us a favour by sparing us all those others . . . Well, we did read most of them so it wasn't that bad. . . . Rest assured that Filch is not amused with Luci's accidents and Colin had to help him dry that poor floor. . . . Don't worry, Sevi knows better than to actually throw a gummy bear into a potion without properly testing it first. He was only joking about that. . . . Oh dear, I thought you might be angry about that one, but that's just it: Ginny isn't you. I just put her into the same situation you were in and voila! Actually, Luna wouldn't have worked, because she has no authority over her classmates. Ginny usually doesn't either, but she is Molly's daughter and has seen how to handle Weasley twins in a crisis more than once. Luna would have been ignored ('Hahaha, the stupid Loony Luna's trying to give orders. She really things she knows how to handle a problem? Hahaha!') . . . And I couldn't use Sevi and Draco's class at all, because Sevi would have taken that in hand quite easily. . . . Sure you can borrow that phrase. I don't think it's all that original anyway, and fanfiction lives off borrowing. . . . Well, Ozma still can show you just how heroic and powerful a squib can be. Yep, I love her fics! . . . Considering that I already told you who the traitor is: No, you may not guess: Company employees and their family members are not allowed to enter the competition.
Watcher Tale Neith - Could be, but since I've never heard of Swedish Fish before, I'm assuming they're a local phenomenon, while I know Gummy Bears to be pretty international. . . . Actually some of Hogwarts' earlier Potions teachers weren't much better than Luci. We're all just used to Sevi having everything in hand, which lets Luci appear even worse by comparison.
Loki19 - Oh, ever Potions class can turn life threatening, but Luci did go overboard with the risk there. . . . I'll try to take a look at your fic sometime, but right now I don't even have the time to keep up with all those I'm already reading (damn job!).
Lady LaCroix - Stephan Lacroix: seventh year Slytherin, one of the two main suspects at the moment, drug dealer . . . Remember him now? . . . Flitwick wasn't quite sure whether Filch was entirely sober . . .
Romulus - Economics exam? Well, is it any consolation, if I tell you that I would have hopelessly failed every economics exam, if I'd ever gone to a school where that was a subject? Geography (Which included a touch of economy.) was sleep inducing enough. . . . I thought the address as partner was a good way to demonstrate that Remus accepted Sevi as an equal again. (It wasn't entirely serious, but still a sort of: I respect your abilities.)
Kateri - Sorry to tell you this, but HPHC is complete as it is. It's open ended, because it has to be. Any attempt to continue it would ruin it.
MarsIsBrightTonight - Ah, can't tell you, but thanks for reviewing.
Jade Kirk and Max LBC - So far they're testing them, only Greenie recognised their actual purpose.
Pol - That's okay, I'm much too busy myself, so I understand. . . . Ah, but Ron isn't the only one. Colin for example shares his fate. . . . Have you already tried the favourites on my Author's page? There's favourite fics and favourite authors. Not all are HP, but those that are usually deal with Draco or Sevi. If they don't they're so good it doesn't matter . . . You could also give Lady Lestrange a try. Not Sevi and Draco, but definitely Slytherin. Severitus is an excellent author as well . . .
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A/N: What is that potion that requires the three chocolate frogs for that only the girls are likely to know it? What did the gummy bears do to Sevi's potion? And will Harry be able to reconstruct the recipe for his icicle potion? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Severus is still fascinated with the gummy bears, Draco goes to Care for Magical Creatures class and Lucius finds out about his son's 'tutoring lessons'.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - I know I'm late and this is neither a Friday nor Saturday. No, today is the 24th of December, though and that is when we Austrians celebrate Christmas. Yep, there'll be presents under the tree for me this evening. (Nope, no stockings, nothing tomorrow morning.) So this chapter is my Christmas gift to you. Hope you like it.
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Chapter 14: Gummy Bears and Bad Smells
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Professor Vector turned out to be a disappointment. All Arithmancy students had been present and the one student that had gone to the bathroom at the beginning of the lesson had been a Muggle born Ravenclaw girl.
"Larissa." Professor Vector volunteered. "Larissa Erold. I very much doubt that she'd kill anyone."
Severus could only nod in confirmation. The girl was a harmless bookworm who tended to get upset at the slightest sign of discord in the classroom. She was almost more peace loving than the Hufflepuffs.
"That leaves only Trelawney's class." Draco remarked when Severus reported his results back to him.
Severus frowned. "I just can't shake the feeling that we're missing something. There's some clue or suspect that we've overlooked, but it's definitely not Larissa Erold."
"Do you want to go over the seventh year again?" Draco suggested. "We could add the Ravenclaws to the list."
"No, I don't think it's the Ravenclaws. We have Neel Ferris on the list already." Severus sighed. "Maybe it's something about the Hufflepuffs?"
Whatever it was wouldn't leave Severus alone all through Ancient Runes class. Professor Rosetta luckily didn't mind his being distracted, though. At least that kept him from starting any discussions with Hermione Granger, who was bad enough on her own.
In Latin class Severus even started to draw a quick sketch of the castle trying to estimate the time each student would have taken to reach the Transfigurations corridor from whatever class they'd had just before the attack. Even if he'd run all the way the traitor could not have made it back down into the Potions classroom before the start of the next lesson. He had to have been on scene to push over the armour.
If he'd still had his books in Potions class the next class coming in had to have noticed. There was room enough in the old kitchens, but Filch hadn't supplied that many worktables, so somebody would have been likely to have need of the traitor's table.
That meant that the traitor would have had to take his bag with him when he'd left Potions. That excluded going to the bathroom or an injury as excuse for leaving. A student so badly in need of Poppy's assistance that he couldn't wait until after class wouldn't bother to collect his books first and usually wouldn't go alone either. His classmates would find that odd and remember later when they heard about the attack on Potter. And you didn't take your bag with you, if you expected to return in a minute or two and continue your work, as would be the case with a student leaving for a bathroom break.
So what unobtrusive reasons were there for taking your bag with you?
Severus dismissed the idea of the headmaster or another teacher asking for the student's presence right away. It would require an accomplice outside the classroom to pretend to be said teacher and send the request, most likely via floo since owl post was rather unusual between teachers and actually showing up inside the class would require a really good disguise and excellent acting. A face in the flames could easily be mistaken for somebody else, if you weren't facing it directly and the conversation could be kept quiet enough so the students wouldn't be able to make out what was really said.
But the call would arouse the other students' curiosity and they'd be sure to ask questions about it afterwards.
The simplest excuse to leave would be the end of the lesson, of course, but would there have been enough time to make it to the Transfigurations corridor?
At an all out run, perhaps, Severus decided. But what way could the traitor have had to know when Harry would be passing the suit of armour? If Harry had left class at the same time as the traitor, he would have been well past the prepared trap by the time the traitor was in position, even if he'd been walking at a very leisurely pace.
An accomplice to keep Harry from leaving Charms class too soon? But who? Definitely not Professor Flitwick himself.
Another student then? A fellow Gryffindor would have been going the same way as Harry, so they could have talked on the way. The rest of the class had been Ravenclaws, while the traitor, if he had been in Potions would have to be a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor. Severus doubted that any of them would trust a member of another house enough to assist them with murder.
Unless of course, said member of another house was a sibling. To his knowledge none of the seventh years had a sibling in sixth year, though.
That left the class just coming into Charms, the fifth year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. A large portion of those had been in Care for Magical Creatures, though and almost all the rest in Muggle Studies. Neither group would have been able to guarantee that they'd arrive in time to catch Harry and the entire fifth year was cleared.
Still it couldn't hurt to check what fifth years didn't take either Care for Magical Creatures or Muggle Studies.
Just as they entered Potions class another possibility hit Severus. If the traitor had been working at one of the back tables near the pillars or one of the many dark corners of the room, he might have just quietly packed up and pushed his bag behind the pillar, or into the corner before excusing himself to go to the bathroom.
The bag would have been out of the way, so nobody might have noticed it standing quietly in the dark and, since Lucius would have been in on the plan, the traitor could have come back to collect it after all the other students were gone. If he'd left a second bag with whatever items he absolutely needed for his next class hidden somewhere near the Transfigurations corridor he wouldn't even have been in danger of showing up unequipped for his next class and he had to have known that classes would be cancelled soon anyway. An empty bag might have sufficed to fool people into thinking he had his books with him.
That idea spoke against using curtains to create small side rooms to this classroom as well, Severus thought. It would be even easier to hide an object, if you could just push it through a curtain and out of sight.
Draco drew him out of his thoughts.
"When do we talk to Neville?" the boy asked eagerly.
Severus shot him a disgruntled glance. "After we're rid of Potter. Now try to behave naturally."
They set up their cauldrons and Severus let out Greenie who went right off to explore the table. There were all the usual delicious treats and interesting plant parts, the nasty hot cauldrons he'd long since learned to avoid sniffing at, the weird metal and glass objects, the occasional leather bound book and . . . What was that smell?
Greenie followed his nose to find some strange soft substance that was almost like cloth, but slightly stiffer and made strange sounds when touched. And it formed a bag full of little colourful things that smelled very unusual, but not bad at all. From his long time with humans, a whole year in fact, Greenie had learned a lot of things. Among them was the knowledge that a lot of strange things were edible, even if most hedgehogs wouldn't expect them to be.
If something didn't smell bad, didn't run away and wasn't hot, one way to explore it more closely was to bite in.
At random Greenie picked an orange one and gave it a bite. It had an odd taste, but Greenie had already eaten such weird things as chocolate and cookies. This wasn't all that different. He finished the object off with another bite.
"Greenie!" Draco yelled and pulled him away quickly. "Severus, he ate a gummy bear!"
"Sniff?" asked Greenie looking up at Draco's pale face in surprise.
"We'll have to take him to Madame Pomfrey." Draco stated after staring into the hedgehog's little dark green eyes for a moment.
Severus blinked, looked at Greenie, the bag of gummy bears, then Draco. "Why? Albus said they were edible and Greenie's never had digestive problems before. Not even after taking bites out of books and chocolate frog wrappers. I don't think a little gummy bear will do him any harm."
Draco took a deep breath and felt very foolish. "We still shouldn't let him eat up our new Potions project." he declared.
"Probably not." Severus agreed after a moment of regarding the bag of gummy bears. "We might never get any more of these, after all. Pull over an extra chair to put them on."
Unlike the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw class the sixth year Slytherin/Gryffindor Potions class always had extra chairs available, which was very practical, if you found that you required a side table for extra ingredients, or a hedgehog cage. It had nothing to do with the Slytherins, though. It was the Gryffindor class that, with only eight students, was unusually small. Normally each house got ten, sometimes up to twelve students each year, but for some reason their year had been an unusually weak one.
Severus assumed that it was because they had been born during the end of the Voldemort war. Too many had died, before they'd had children, while others had had children that had then been killed along with them. Again others probably had decided not to have children during the war at all.
That theory also explained why the fourth year classes were particularly big. After the fall of Voldemort the future had looked perfect for children. Few people were expecting Voldemort to ever return and it had seemed like the children born then could look forward to a happy and long life of peace and safety. Sometimes Severus wondered what their parents felt now that Voldemort was back and the second war only beginning before their children had even taken their OWLs.
"What's that?" Neville asked wide eyed at the sight of the gummy bears.
"A gift from the headmaster." Severus answered with a shrug. "Apparently some Muggle sweets, but we got them to test out their magical uses."
"Magical uses?" Harry asked surprised. "Of sweets?"
"There is a very common medical potion that requires three chocolate frogs as ingredients." Severus pointed out.
"Huh?" made Draco.
"Oh, nothing you would know, but I'm sure all the girls are familiar with the potion." Severus grinned.
"If it's such a common potion, why haven't we brewed it in class, yet?" Harry asked while throwing a fistful of unevenly cut mandrake slices into his potion.
Severus winced at the sight wondering how long Harry could go without another disaster even if he didn't sabotage the soup at all. "You think I'd let you lot brew something that includes chocolate? Ron would probably have eaten the entire supply before the water would have started boiling in your cauldrons. A complete waste of ingredients."
Despite the fact that he was probably supposed to defend his best friend, Harry couldn't suppress a snort of amusement.
"So how do we go about determining the magical qualities of the rubber bears?" Neville asked poking a yellow bear that had rolled out of the bag when Draco had put them down.
"I could try putting one into my soup as a taste giving ingredient." Harry suggested.
Severus glared at him. "You can't just throw an ingredient of unknown magical qualities into a potion like that. It's extremely dangerous. What if it causes an explosion when combined with mandrake roots? Or it could turn poisonous with lizard livers."
Harry jumped at the thought and the three lizard livers he'd been holding slipped out of his hand. He quickly picked the first two off the floor and threw them into the cauldron, but then looked around helplessly.
"The only safe way to start this is to put one gummy bear into a cauldron containing only water and heat it up very slowly and cautiously." Severus explained.
"Have any of you seen my lizard liver?" Harry asked into the expectant silence as the three boys watched the yellow gummy bear dissolve in the hot water.
"It fell into Neville's jar of fly wings." Draco answered distractedly.
"Oh thanks." Harry said politely and grabbed the jar.
"It what?" gasped Neville. "My fly wings!"
Harry picked the lizard liver out of the jar and threw it into his cauldron which complained with an angry hiss.
"Oh, yuck!" Neville declared at the sight of his now very sticky fly wings. "Those were supposed to last me at least a year."
"So, what's the problem?" Harry asked stirring his cauldron. "Just add some water and they'll un-stick pretty fast."
"No they won't." Severus commented while taking a sample of his 'potion'. "And the lizard blood will affect their magical qualities anyway. They're ruined, Neville. Don't even try to save them. They'll only cause your potions to explode again."
"Did you just throw that lizard liver into your potion with fly wings sticking to it?" Draco asked Harry warily.
"Um . . . yes, why not?" Harry blushed suddenly remembering exactly why not.
"Will that really explode?" Draco turned to Severus while slowly inching away from Harry's cauldron.
"That depends on the number of fly wings." Severus answered calmly while adding a single drop of fairy blood to the dissolved gummy bear. "It can't be a big explosion with all the mandrake in there, though."
Relieved Draco returned to watching Severus' experiment which was now turning orange despite the fact that the gummy bear had been yellow.
"Harmless." Severus muttered and added some more fairy blood.
Neville was still staring morosely at his ruined fly wings. "Gran won't be happy about this at all. She's already had to replace so many cauldrons."
"I'll replace that stupid jar, Neville." Harry sighed as his potion suddenly turned gelatinous. "You don't even have to tell your Gran."
"Thanks Harry." Neville beamed glad that he wouldn't have to face his formidable grandmother.
Harry looked up to smile back at Neville and Severus used that moment to throw a tiny object into Harry's cauldron.
Draco blinked. "A pea?" he mouthed at Severus.
Severus nodded and smirked.
A few moments later Harry added a spoonful of powdered tree bark to his potion to restore it to a more liquid state and a puff of smoke rose from his cauldron. All around him his fellow students started to cough and gag.
"Eugh, whatever is that smell?" Seamus commented from the table right in front of them then quickly tried to cover his nose and mouth with the sleeve of his robe.
Lucius put down his paper and stalked over to them. "What the hell is going o. . ." he started, but broke off when he caught a whiff of the smoke. "Who did that?" he demanded instead.
Severus, Draco and Neville wordlessly pointed at Harry while each keeping a hand over his nose.
Lucius glared at Harry.
"It's not me." Harry protested. "It's my potion. I guess I happened on a slightly smelly combination this time, but it hasn't created any weather phenomena, yet and it didn't even explode."
"Wingardium Leviosa!" With a murderous glare Lucius stabbed his wand at the only free worktable in class as if it were a dagger.
The poor table jerked into the air, shot through the whole room and slammed forcefully down in the corner that was farthest away from the teacher's desk.
Lucius' eyes returned to Harry still gleaming dangerously.
Harry took an uneasy step back.
"Take your cauldron and move back there before I strangle you. Potter!" Lucius roared. "And if I catch only a hint of that smell again you'll wish that assassin had gotten you." He didn't elaborate further, but somehow none of the students really wanted to know.
Harry quickly grabbed his cauldron and took off forgetting his book bag and most of his laid out ingredients.
"He'll be back." Draco commented with a nod towards the ingredients.
"Maybe." Severus amended remembering the frightened look on Harry's face when Lucius had stabbed the table.
"Your father wouldn't really leave Harry to the traitor, would he?" Neville asked Draco a little nervously.
"I wouldn't bet on it. " Draco answered with a thoughtful look at Lucius.
"He can be terribly rash when he's angry." Severus tried to tone down the effect of Draco's words. "And he's particularly irascible at the moment. I think teaching doesn't agree with him."
"But to the point that he'd help a murderer?" Neville shivered.
"You saw the last attack, didn't you?" Severus asked almost kindly.
"But so did you. " Neville reminded them.
"Not really." corrected Draco seeing his chance. "We only heard the noise from around the corner and when we ran out into the Transfigurations corridor it was already all over and Harry was lying on the ground between scattered pieces of armour. You must have seen what really happened, though."
Neville nodded. "Yes, it was terrible. One moment we were just walking down the corridor feeling safe and protected as always and then suddenly. . . We'd just had Charms and were happily headed for Transfigurations. Harry was right in front of me with Hermione who was trying to explain something about the DADA homework to him."
"To Potter?" Draco smirked. "Not Weasley?"
"No, Ron doesn't really like it when she starts nagging about homework." Neville shook his head. "He wasn't with them at the time. He was somewhere behind me with Dean and Seamus. You see they'd been talking about girls and Hermione went off in a huff, because of their 'respectless attitude' as she said and Harry went after her to calm her down while Ron stayed to hear the rest of the story. "
"And you weren't with either group?" Draco asked a little confused.
"Well, I'm not exactly popular with my classmates." Neville blushed. "Not clever enough for Hermione, not daring enough for Harry and Ron and . . . well, not womaniser enough for Dean and Seamus, I suppose. I'm just not cool, I guess. I. . . well, Hermione was right in a way. It was embarrassing to hear the way they were talking, but I didn't think it'd be a good idea to tell them so, so I just quietly walked on on my own."
"Okay, so there was Harry and Hermione, then you behind them and then Ron, Dean and Seamus." Draco summed up eagerly. "And then? Did you see anybody else?"
"Well, there were a lot of people in the corridor. It's always very busy there between classes." Neville said. "I remember seeing Alice for a moment. I thought maybe I should wave at her, but I don't really know her, so I didn't and just walked on and suddenly the armour jerked and just smashed down all over Harry and Hermione. Hermione screamed and jumped back, but fell and then the armour was in pieces and they were all ricocheting through the corridor and Dean and the others were beside me all trying to help, but the pieces were still hitting and cutting us. Dean managed to grab a hold of Hermione and pull her back, but she shook him off and ran back in to help Harry and Dean was cut in the arm and screamed and for a moment we thought Harry was dead, but then he sat up and everything was okay." Neville gulped. "Only it isn't really okay, because the traitor will try again until he finally kills Harry."
"No, he won't." Severus assured Neville. "The headmaster and all the teachers are after him. They'll catch him soon, just like they caught those girls that stole books from the restricted section."
"And those students that took drugs." Draco added.
"Yes, but there are still books missing that were stolen by somebody else and I bet there are more drugs in the school too." Neville said. "And they only got caught, because they were looking for the traitor. I bet if they hadn't been, they'd never have noticed the missing books or found the drugs."
"Well, maybe you could help." Draco suggested. "Didn't you see anybody suspicious? Was there somebody standing next to the armour?"
Neville shook his head. "No, I already told you it just jerked and fell. I bet the traitor just threw that severing charm at the ropes from afar."
Severus shook his head. "It wouldn't have fallen just because the ropes were gone. They're just additional supports in case somebody bumps into the armour. There must have been a push or pull."
"No," Neville insisted. "There wasn't anybody near the armour when Harry walked past it. He was the closest."
"Maybe the armour was pushed by a spell then." Severus threw in.
"Yes, did you see anybody cast a spell, or maybe somebody who wasn't supposed to be there?" Draco pushed.
"No, but I only saw Harry and Hermione right before me and a group of smaller students coming down the corridor from the other direction." Neville shook his head again. "Most of the people in the corridor were behind me and by the time I turned around it was all already over and almost everyone had pulled their wands trying to help."
"But was there anybody who wasn't supposed to be there?" Draco repeated.
Neville blinked at him. "What do you mean not supposed to be there? It's an ordinary corridor that's open to everybody."
"Well, were there any students that didn't have class anywhere near there?" Draco explained.
Neville stared at him. "Do you really expect me to know everybody's timetables by heart?"
"Of course not." Severus assured him. "But you might have noticed somebody there that you don't usually meet at that time. And those students that had class nearby would most likely have been walking in a group. If there was someone there with no year- and housemates around, that could be suspicious."
Neville closed his eyes trying to picture the scene in his mind. "Well, I already told you I saw Alice, but she's in your class and we were both headed for Transfigurations. Those smaller students I saw were walking in a group, though I didn't recognise anyone I knew. They looked like they were all in the same year, Hufflepuffs, I think."
"That's probably the third years." Severus threw in. "The third year Slytherins were just coming out of Latin class and I think they have that with the Hufflepuffs."
Neville looked at him in surprise. "You know the third years' schedule?"
"No, I saw some come out of the classroom when I arrived." Severus lied quickly.
"There were some Gryffindor third years behind me when I turned around." Neville continued.
"Then the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw third years probably had Latin right after the Slytheris and Hufflepuffs." Severus suggested. "The two classes of the same year are often held right after each other."
"So all third years had reason to be there, as did all our year mates." Draco summed up.
"Not quite." Severus disagreed. "The Hufflepuffs had DADA with us, then headed down to Potions class. They wouldn't have come through the Transfigurations corridor."
"Then so would the Ravenclaws." Draco added.
"But they were coming out of Charms with us." Neville disagreed. "They had to go past Transfigurations class to get to the stairs."
"Okay," Draco conceded. "So did you see any Hufflepuff sixth years?"
Neville shook his head. "No, but I saw your Quidditch captain. He was yelling at a girl I don't know. She looked like she might have been one of his classmates, but I'm not sure."
"Any more seventh years?" Draco asked.
Neville shrugged. "Maybe. I'm not sure."
Severus didn't say anything this time so Neville wouldn't get suspicious again, but he knew Stephan had been going to History of Magic class.
"Not sure." Draco repeated. "Not sure about Slytherin seventh years or seventh years of all houses?"
"All houses." Neville confirmed. "I wasn't really paying attention to that at the time."
Severus suppressed a sigh and picked out the next gummy bear for testing. The Slytherin and Ravenclaw seventh years had to have been around, but the presence of one or more Hufflepuffs would have sufficed to prove Lucius' story about the entire class leaving late false. The Gryffindor seventh years wouldn't have been supposed to be there at all, as they should have headed outside for Herbology right after Potions. Well, Neville probably would have recognised and remembered his own housemates.
"You do realise that the traitor could have cast that charm from behind a corner, don't you?" Neville said suddenly. "It's what I would have done. Watch around the corner, then lean out and cast the charm as soon as Harry was in position and disappear right back into my side corridor or even better an unused classroom."
Severus shook his head. "A rarely used side corridor would be better." he argued. "The classrooms up there all have only one door, so the traitor would have had to leave through the Transfigurations corridor after the deed. In order to remain unseen, he would have had to wait until everybody had left and he'd have run the risk of the teachers checking the classrooms in their investigation. How would he have explained his presence? What if his next class would have started on schedule? If he used a side corridor he could just have walked away in the other direction. He might have been a little late for his next class, but could have made an excuse for a few minutes."
"Well, there wasn't anyone at the corner of the corridor we were in." Draco stated.
"Of course not." Severus agreed. "Any student heading downstairs or coming upstairs from or to the Transfigurations corridor would use that corridor. It's the fastest way to the stairs. It beats the whole purpose of hiding around the corner, if every student in the other corridor will see him and notice his odd behaviour."
"But all the corridors were busy." Neville frowned. "Which one could he have used?"
"Not the one leading towards the library and the Ravenclaw common room." Severus decided. "It might have been less busy than the stairs, but there's always the people visiting the library during study hour. The staircase going up to the Charms corridor was busy as well, but on the other end we have that dark corridor leading to the Hufflepuff common room. That's only ever busy at the beginning and end of lunch break and after the end of the last class of the day when the Hufflepuffs return to their dorms to drop off their bags."
"Then the traitor would be a Hufflepuff?" Neville asked doubtfully.
"Not necessarily." Severus answered. "The corridor is usually used only by Hufflepuffs, because it's rather out of the way for everybody else, but that doesn't mean other students can't use it if they want to."
"And it's far enough away from the armour that the teachers probably wouldn't have paid it much attention in their investigation." Draco added excitedly.
"In fact a student coming out of that corridor a little while after the attack and heading for the stairs down to DADA or Potions would never have passed the armour and probably have escaped notice quite easily." Severus agreed.
"So you think that's what happened?" Neville asked wide eyed.
"No, I think that might have happened." Severus corrected. "It's just as likely that it was one of the students walking openly through the corridor. If he had class there, why should he hide?"
"But then it could have been anyone." Neville said. "Alice, one of those third years, that Quidditch captain . . ."
Stephan, once again Stephan, but Severus also knew Gaia Ushton had been there, even if Neville, who probably didn't even know her, hadn't noticed her. And if Gaia had been there, Maximius Mattels could have as well.
Stephan or Maximius? Maximius or Stephan? It always seemed to get back down to that question and Severus couldn't make up his mind. Maybe he ought to search both boys' dorms again, but at least Maximius had to know that his trunk had already been searched once and his protections had been devious even before then. Was the risk of improved security measures on and around Maximius' trunk worth the possible gain from another search?
The gummy bears had been a little disappointing up to now as well. They clearly weren't poisonous, which Severus hadn't really expected from a sweet anyway. Food items were usually hard to convert into poisons. That also indicated that they weren't very likely to have much use in medical potions either, though.
Thankfully there didn't seem to be any tendencies to explode and they were useless as heating or cooling agents. Again qualities that were usually related, at least explosiveness was a typical side effect of heating agents.
Despite their bright colours the gummy bears didn't have any optical effects either and Severus was beginning to suspect that Harry might have been on the right track with his suggestion to test them for taste giving abilities. They didn't seem to have much of an effect on the smell of a potion, though, which wasn't exactly promising considering the close relation between the senses of smell and taste.
Just to distract himself Severus threw together a weak sparking solution that would give his classmates something to look at. As an afterthought he threw in a white gummy bear at the end, more as an excuse in case Lucius had actually been watching and knew what had gone into his cauldron. After all he'd told him he was exploring gummy bears today.
The potion hissed slightly louder than normal and then a shower of sparks flew up to the ceiling.
"Wow." Severus took a step back and regarded the results of his weak sparking solution. Somehow this looked a lot like extremely concentrated sparking solution.
"Um . . . wasn't this what you meant to do?" Neville asked a little nervously.
"Not quite like this." Severus responded absent-mindedly while scribbling away furiously on his note parchment. "Let's try this again with a different colour."
A sudden yelp of surprise from the back of the classroom made Draco and Neville spin around to check on Harry, who was surrounded by dark blue icicles that seemed to grow wherever the vapour rising from his cauldron touched a solid object.
"Don't worry, they're not even cold!" Harry called out to them after the first moment of surprise.
He broke one of the icicles off and gave it a cautious lick, then beamed.
"Strawberry!" he announced. "I think I'm finally on the right track."
"Harry!" Hermione yelled horrified. "Did you even run a poison test on them?"
That remark stopped the group of eager students that had already started to run over to try the icicles as well. Lucius gave an angry snort and stalked into the back corner to take a closer look.
"They still smell." he complained, but took a sample icicle for testing anyway. "Keep your notes, Potter. I will tell you whether your product is safe for consumption on Monday."
Severus was still working furiously on his sparking solution and ignoring Harry's icicles completely, so Draco took it upon himself to inspect them.
"An ice cave, Potter?" he asked with a sneer. "Didn't you promise us soup?"
"Get lost, Malfoy." Harry growled half-heartedly. He was feeling a little proud of his accomplishment, after all.
Draco broke off one of the smaller icicles and sniffed it. "Father is right. They do still smell. Are you sure you want to eat this?"
This time Harry reacted and earned himself a satisfactory deduction of twenty points from Lucius.
Draco brought the icicle with him when Lucius sent him back to his own worktable.
Meanwhile a red gummy bear ended up in the second cauldron of sparking solution. The sparks didn't rise quite as high this time, but there were even more of them.
Severus' eyes gleamed as he threw together a third batch intending to try it with a green bear, but unfortunately the bell rang before he could complete it.
"We need to test Potter's icicles." Draco informed Severus that evening. "It would be too convenient for Father to just tell him they're safe, if they're actually deadly poison."
"Too obvious." Severus disagreed. "He'd be under suspicion right away. I doubt he'd risk it and from the ingredients he used, it's highly unlikely he could have produced something that dangerous."
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He was getting too old to climb up into this remote part of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore thought to himself as he pulled the cord that hung down from the trapdoor that led up to Sybil Trelawney's classroom. He'd hoped she'd come down for one of the meals so he wouldn't have to make the climb, but Sybil was playing hermit again. The usual really. He just didn't like it.
In answer to his ring the trapdoor opened and the ladder fell down. Albus wondered whatever they'd do, if they ever happened to get a student with a bad leg or hand who wanted to study Divination. No wonder Sybil found it necessary to send somebody along whenever a student got dizzy in her overly perfumed and stuffy classroom. The ladder felt wobbly enough to him despite the fact that he was in perfect health considering his age.
Perhaps there was a way to force Professor Trelawney to move to a more convenient location, or at least replace the rope ladder with something a little more sturdy? Moving stairs would be nice, or maybe a teleporting mirror?
"Ah headmaster," Sybil greeted him from behind her crystal ball. "I had a feeling I'd get an important visit sometime this day."
"Of course, Sybil." Albus humoured her wondering what she'd really been doing. "Don't worry, I do not intend to impose on your time for long. You'll be able to continue your seeing in a few minutes."
Perhaps that was the reason for the ladder. The time it took a visitor to climb up into the classroom gave Sybil enough time to set up the pretence of being engaged in some divination in the classroom. With the doors to her office and private chambers closed there was no telling what she'd really been up to when he'd rung the bell.
"Of course, Headmaster." Sybil smiled at him. "I wasn't doing anything important anyway, just a routine check up."
"I don't suppose you've been able to get any further details about the traitor, yet?" It was always a good idea to play along with Trelawney's pretence of being a great diviner. It kept her in a good mood and made her relax her guard.
"Ah, in fact I have!" Sybil announced dramatically. "I have seen him in my scrying pool."
"Him?" Albus repeated faking eagerness. "The traitor is male then?"
"It appears so, though all I was able to see was a tall black robed figure that jumped up from behind the pedestal, pushed over the armour and ran. Actually it looked like he melted back into the wall like a shadow." Sybil hissed eyes wide. "He is powerful and dangerous, I tell you and determined that nothing will stop him. A creature of pure evil, he is. Find him, Headmaster, find him soon, or he will become invincible."
"The traitor, or Voldemort?" Albus asked with a slight smile.
"Do not take my warning lightly!" Trelawney threatened apparently unwilling to make up her mind about that question. "Harry Potter's life is in great danger. I have seen this coming for a long time. Oh yes, I have."
"Very well then, since you haven't been able to discover the traitor's name . . ."
Trelawney snorted. "Divination is a difficult science, a form of art even. You cannot force an answer to reveal itself at a snap of your fingers. The future is a foggy realm and only that which the gods will allow us to be seen is revealed."
"Of course, Sybil." Albus pacified her. "I am aware of the limits of your trade. I had only been hoping that perhaps you could give us a little more to go on. Unfortunately everyone of our current suspects is in the habit of wearing black quite often." He twinkled at her disarmingly. "Anyhow, as I was about to say, since you haven't been able to discover a name, yet, I'd like to know a little more about the class you had just before the first incident. Mr Ferris of Ravenclaw snuck out of class, I believe was what you told us, but what of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs in that class?"
"The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs, Headmaster?" Trelawney asked in surprise.
"Yes, they had Potions just before the latest incident and you know how unreliable Lucius is." Albus twinkled some more. "I just wish to double check those students to make sure they really have an alibi. Which ones do you remember from that lesson?"
"Well, Mr. Alcott and Mr. Harringer, of course." Sybil wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Two terrible louts, but then most of them are. Boys of sixteen and seventeen just don't have any appreciation for the spiritual. They are too restless, too immersed within the profane. Teenage hormones, I suppose."
"Ah," Albus nodded hoping that was close enough to the expected understanding. "Mr. Alcott and Mr. Harringer, though?"
"They sat right there." Trelawney pointed. "At that table. Whispering and laughing and sometimes even aping me all through the lesson. Mr. Highflyer of Hufflepuff sat with them, but at least wasn't quite that obnoxious. He occasionally joined in with the laughter, but I'll concede that that might have been involuntary on his part."
Dumbledore nodded an encouragement.
"Highflyer is a polite and quiet boy most of the time, though not much of a diviner." Trelawney elaborated. "He has concentration problems and an overactive imagination, but very rarely interrupts class. He might miss something due to daydreaming, but hardly ever distracts another student."
"So you are sure those three were present and didn't ever leave class for a bathroom break or something like that?"
"I'm sure they were here." Sybil confirmed. "And I don't think any of them went to the bathroom, but it has been quite a few weeks. I'm not sure I'd remember every bathroom break from back then."
Albus nodded. "Any other Gryffindors in that class?"
"Yes . . . yes there should be two girls as well." Trelawney thought for a moment. "Ms Humperding and Ms Miller, neither of them particularly noteworthy. They seem to be nice moderately interested girls, with no particular talent for my subject, but the inner eye is not something one can force. They do well enough with the theory. I think they sat over there, not too far from the boys, but closer to the front, probably hoping they'd still be able to hear me without offending their friends. With all the laughter of the boys, they probably didn't have much luck, though."
"I see." Albus suppressed a yawn. The fumes were beginning to get to him.
"That's all the Gryffindors." Sybil reported. "Ms Lost and Ms Hollster of Hufflepuff sat right here in the front. They are the most promising of the bunch, particularly Ms Lost has shown a lot of aptitude for reading cards and tea leaves. Ms Hollster seems to favour the crystal ball. Neither has shown a particular gift for reading the stars, yet, but I suspect that's more due to a lack of the basic knowledge they should have learned in Astronomy. Ever since Professor Sinistra has been teaching I've noticed a decline in my students' ability to read the stars. I'm not saying that I don't trust in her knowledge or will to teach, but perhaps her ability to pass on the knowledge is . . . limited."
Albus let the tirade wash over him. Too bad for Sybil that she hadn't found a way to blame her students' failures on Minerva, but then Transfiguration had absolutely nothing to do with Divination. He wondered whether he should point that out to Sybil, but decided against it.
Just why had he come here again?
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Aku Maru - Actually, for just one semester your German is excellent. Proper use of ie! (I was beginning to suspect that people whose first language is English are incapable of that.) Only little error: Kapital (capital . . . as in capitalism, not a city). I think you meant Kapitel (chapter). I don't think I could do that well in French and I had four years of that (unwillingly at the time, though). . . . I just wish I'd remembered to add Feliz Navidad for my Spanish speaking readers . . .
Marauder3Moony - Can't take credit for that e-mail, I'm afraid. It's an automatic function of ff.net. I only pay for the support services once a year and the alerts are taken care of. (Which is rather nice, since it's not only easier, but also faster than sending them out manually after uploading.)
Kayla Hemlock - Well, I've introduced a lot of people who aren't the traitor. One traitor, lots of red herrings . . . Oh dear! Did I really just call my poor Slytherins red?!
animegirl-mika - Vacations? Where in the world do they have a school holiday a month before Christmas?! I think I know a few children who'd like to move in with you . . .
Pam Briggs - Stephen? Oh, you mean Stephan. He's French, that's why he has an a. Yep, Stephan certainly is a suspect, has been from the very start, but is he the traitor? . . . Our two boys are hard at work thinking out suspects, but where that will lead them remains to be seen.
RowanRhys - Ah, but Percy is already back home and by now has even left the hospital, so Voldemort has nothing to blackmail the Weasleys with right now. . . . Yep, inter-house friendships are a necessity and I think with the shared classes, they should also come naturally unless here were too much prejudice and rivalry between the houses (Albus: house cup!). . . . My brave little Toughbook (Yes, that is the name of the model.) is already happily back home just like Percy and two years old today. (Happy birthday, my dear notebook and I hope we'll have many more years together. I've tried my Dad's newer and bigger notebook, but it just can't compare.)
Mala Zloca - Sticking close to Potter would be a suicide mission for a gummy bear I'm afraid. Remember he's Muggle raised and knows they're edible!
Colibi - Ron had no idea who Scabbers really was. No, whatever Ron does or doesn't do right or wrong has nothing at all to do with Wormtail.
JKH - Well, we all know Draco doesn't think too highly of Hufflepuffs, but then of course Sevi knows better.
JerseyPike - Sorry, that's why it's a mystery.
ME - I've got one argument against Seamus having a better opportunity to rig the plate: He hadn't yet reached the table when it exploded. If Seamus is the traitor he must have done it during lesson time just as any of the other suspects would. And somebody going into the great hall during lesson time would be noteworthy even if he goes to his own house's table.
black sayain - Thanks!
hummer - Yep, I love him, too. That's why he's back in this one. . . . Careful, no choking please! I'd like to keep you alive and healthy so you can read the rest of the fic!
EriEka127 - Thanks!
rhabeeb - Sorry, but HPHC is finished. any attempt to continue it would require me to break the style and destroy the picture. It's open ended on a hopeful note on purpose. I believe that Harry will find a way to dig himself out of his depression, but it will be a long way with many ups and downs. He's now able to accept the help of friends, both old and new, though and with heir help he'll find a way to win some former friends back. Others he will have to give up forever, but that's life.
Crye 4 Me - To clean up the room for him? After all Luci keeps Colin behind after every class as well. They can't both be the traitor, can they? (Yep, I know I'm annoying, but I have to protect my secret, or else it won't be a mystery anymore and this is the first time I've actually found a category for one of my fics.)
Iremione - The Erlkönig is a poem, not a song. It was just the first thing I could think of, because it was the only ballade I actually had to learn by heart in school. Our teacher thought she was doing us a favour by sparing us all those others . . . Well, we did read most of them so it wasn't that bad. . . . Rest assured that Filch is not amused with Luci's accidents and Colin had to help him dry that poor floor. . . . Don't worry, Sevi knows better than to actually throw a gummy bear into a potion without properly testing it first. He was only joking about that. . . . Oh dear, I thought you might be angry about that one, but that's just it: Ginny isn't you. I just put her into the same situation you were in and voila! Actually, Luna wouldn't have worked, because she has no authority over her classmates. Ginny usually doesn't either, but she is Molly's daughter and has seen how to handle Weasley twins in a crisis more than once. Luna would have been ignored ('Hahaha, the stupid Loony Luna's trying to give orders. She really things she knows how to handle a problem? Hahaha!') . . . And I couldn't use Sevi and Draco's class at all, because Sevi would have taken that in hand quite easily. . . . Sure you can borrow that phrase. I don't think it's all that original anyway, and fanfiction lives off borrowing. . . . Well, Ozma still can show you just how heroic and powerful a squib can be. Yep, I love her fics! . . . Considering that I already told you who the traitor is: No, you may not guess: Company employees and their family members are not allowed to enter the competition.
Watcher Tale Neith - Could be, but since I've never heard of Swedish Fish before, I'm assuming they're a local phenomenon, while I know Gummy Bears to be pretty international. . . . Actually some of Hogwarts' earlier Potions teachers weren't much better than Luci. We're all just used to Sevi having everything in hand, which lets Luci appear even worse by comparison.
Loki19 - Oh, ever Potions class can turn life threatening, but Luci did go overboard with the risk there. . . . I'll try to take a look at your fic sometime, but right now I don't even have the time to keep up with all those I'm already reading (damn job!).
Lady LaCroix - Stephan Lacroix: seventh year Slytherin, one of the two main suspects at the moment, drug dealer . . . Remember him now? . . . Flitwick wasn't quite sure whether Filch was entirely sober . . .
Romulus - Economics exam? Well, is it any consolation, if I tell you that I would have hopelessly failed every economics exam, if I'd ever gone to a school where that was a subject? Geography (Which included a touch of economy.) was sleep inducing enough. . . . I thought the address as partner was a good way to demonstrate that Remus accepted Sevi as an equal again. (It wasn't entirely serious, but still a sort of: I respect your abilities.)
Kateri - Sorry to tell you this, but HPHC is complete as it is. It's open ended, because it has to be. Any attempt to continue it would ruin it.
MarsIsBrightTonight - Ah, can't tell you, but thanks for reviewing.
Jade Kirk and Max LBC - So far they're testing them, only Greenie recognised their actual purpose.
Pol - That's okay, I'm much too busy myself, so I understand. . . . Ah, but Ron isn't the only one. Colin for example shares his fate. . . . Have you already tried the favourites on my Author's page? There's favourite fics and favourite authors. Not all are HP, but those that are usually deal with Draco or Sevi. If they don't they're so good it doesn't matter . . . You could also give Lady Lestrange a try. Not Sevi and Draco, but definitely Slytherin. Severitus is an excellent author as well . . .
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A/N: What is that potion that requires the three chocolate frogs for that only the girls are likely to know it? What did the gummy bears do to Sevi's potion? And will Harry be able to reconstruct the recipe for his icicle potion? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Severus is still fascinated with the gummy bears, Draco goes to Care for Magical Creatures class and Lucius finds out about his son's 'tutoring lessons'.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!