Chapter Two: Potion's Savior



Harry kept looking toward the Great Hall doors, waiting for Adessa to come, and the open windows on the ceiling and calls, waiting for the mail to arrive. Hermione finally shoved food under his nose, and forced a fork into his hand. "Eat." She said, "I heard that Adessa eats with her mother at breakfast." Harry glanced up in shock as Hermione hit the reason right on the nose, then smiled ruefully.

After a few minutes, Professor McGonagall walked down the tables handing out schedules.

"Brilliant!" Ron cried, "We have a free double period this morning! We can go visit Hagrid or something!"

"Uhh . . . " Hermione hesitated, looking at her schedule as Harry glanced down at his. "Um, Ron? I don't have a free period . . . " She trailed off and leaned over to look at the parchment in Harry's hand. "Harry doesn't have it either. We have Double Potions. Ugh . . . " Harry groaned with her.

Ron looked down, obviously hurt, but trying not to show it. "It's okay . . . You two go . . . "

"Sorry, Ron . . . " Harry and Hermione apologized, then raced out of the Hall.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry and Hermione sat down next to each other in silence, at a loss of what to say to Ron. Just when Hermione opened her mouth to say something, Professor Snape stalked in.

"Settle down, settle down." He said menacingly, and his glance lighting upon Harry. "Today we shall strive to create the potion called Letharga. This potion causes what an inexperience eye would call temporary paralyzation, or really, extreme loss of speed to the extremities. I trust you all did the reading on this difficult potion, so I need not explain further. However," He held up a long, white finger, "A heavy hand can immobilize the body forever. The directions are upon the board," The Potions Master waved his want and instructions appeared upon the board in the front of the room, "And the required ingredients are in--"

"Sorry! I'm late!" Adessa burst into the laboratory, out of breath, her hair falling out of a hasty ponytail. "Sorry!" She repeated. "I was having breakfast with my mom and we lost track of the time . . . " The girl trailed off at the cold expression on his face.

"Sit!" He commanded, his usually silky voice cracked with the effort of not screaming. Adessa bit her lip, and slipped into the seat beside Harry.

"Heyla." The interrupter said as she squinted at the board.

"Hey." He said dully, keeping his eyes down.

"Oh, my God!" Adessa exclaimed, interrupting again Snape's train of thought, her eyes widening. "We learned to create this potion last year. It was *so* easy! The Letharga Potion, right?"

"Yes." Snape, fuming, had stalked up behind her and was looking down his nose at her. "If you are so, adept," His lip curled. "At the composition of his potion, then please tell me what smell should be arising from the potion when it is completed."

"Vanilla." Adessa answered without hesitation, and began adding ingredients to her cauldron at rapid speed as she continued to speak. "And that smell is why, many a times, this potion has been accidentally added to many bakery goods. Just by a baker's mistake of smelling a vial, instead of checking labels." Everyone looked at her in awe.

Except Hermione who muttered, "I knew that . . . " As she strove to catch up to the girl.

Snape marched angrily around the room for the next hour, taking points away from Gryffindor's for the pettiest excuses. Such as, "Your sleeve is near your potion! Five points from Gryffindor!" And others akin to that. For the third time, Snape stopped in front of Harry's just finished potion, his nose wrinkled in disgust. He took a big whiff, then smiled in glee.

"Mr. Potter, your potion has the odor of rotten eggs! Did you not hear what Miss Thompson said about the odor of a finished Letharga Potion?" Harry nodded glumly, then sniffed his potion. Indignation flooded into the Gryffindor's mind, for all he could smell was vanilla.

"Then this potion is completely useless. Evanesc--"

"Professor." Adessa cut through Snape's spell, interrupting him again.

"What?" The Potions Master was white with barely contained fury.

"Stop your spell." Adessa cooly regarded the livid Professor, who had anything but a calm eye.

"And why," His fist opening and closing in a pattern known only to him, "Should I stop?" Harry could see Snape's other hand shaking on his wand. Hermione and Harry exchanged startled glances.

"You're about to erase the wrong potion."

A tic had begun to appear by Snape's eye. "And how would *you* know which potion would be wrong or right?! You are merely a student. I am a Potions Master!" His hands were clenched tight into fists, starkly white against his black robes.

But Adessa regarded him with a calm eye. "Your sense of smell is obviously faulty then." Gasps echoed around the room, Hermione and Harry among them. "Unless of course," She held up a finger, "You are *favoring*," She placed special emphasis on that word, "The students from your house . . . " Adessa left it hanging, the thread placed.

Snape's mouth worked silently, his eyes wide with shock staring into her slightly concerned ones.

"Here." She curled her forefinger in a summoning motion and a wisp of mist drifted from above Malfoy's cauldron to Snape's nose. At Dessa's nod, he took a sniff. The Potions Master's face wrinkled in disgust. Sneezing, he drew his wand. Glaring at the student that had corrected him, he marched over to Malfoy's cauldron. Harry looked away, trying not to gloat, then turned to his defender, while trying to hear Malfoy's whines and pleas, and Snape's angry snarls.

"Thanks." Harry said with a grin. "I owe you one."

"No prob." She responded with a smile. At his blank look, she winced and said it was an American expression.

When Potions was finally over, Adessa said a quick goodbye to Harry and Hermione, then left, saying she had to speak with her mother before Snape did.

It was only after her the last swish of her robes had rounded the corner that Hermione turned to Harry.

"Did you see what she did in there?" Harry's best friend demanded, and as Harry started to describe sarcastically the scene, she cut through his narrative.

"Did you realize what she did?" She asked in exasperation as they headed toward the Gryffindor common room. At another blank look from Harry, she visibly got control over herself. She finally said in a quiet voice, "She summoned the mist from Malfoy's cauldron, that was, might I add, the whole room away, and bloody well *didn't use a want*!"

Now Hermione was receiving some strange looks from the people in the hall. Harry placed a reassuring, but embarrassed hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"I swear. There is something strange about that Adessa Thompson, and I am bloody well going to find it out!"

And with that, she stormed away, heading toward the Library, and leaving a very confused and disturbed Harry behind.









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