~Chapter Six- Confusion and Befuddlement~
"Hey look, we've got all our classes together. Cool!"
It was the next morning and Cari and Lindsey sat at breakfast looking over their new schedules.
"We've got double Transfiguration first, Herbology, and Potions… almost all our classes are with Hufflepuff. Oh, no, here's one with Gryffindor, and Slytherin too. Hmm… Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions…"
"Those are the two with Slytherin?" Lindsey asked, glancing at her schedule.
"Yeah… Care of Magical Creatures with Gryffindor. Hey, we have Divination with Slytherin too, that's more than I thought," Cari continued.
"Oh, I'm sure that makes someone happy," Lindsey said teasingly.
"Well yes- what? I mean… Oh shut-up!" Cari retorted defensively. Lindsey laughed lightly.
"So, Potions Monday and Friday? That's cool… Oh, double Potions Friday, well then…" Cari went on muttering to herself all through breakfast, barely eating, although Lindsey chose to dig in.
They started the day with double Transfiguration and Herbology, both with Hufflepuff. The Hufflepuffs may have been steadfast and loyal friends, but they certainly weren't the most exciting of people, and in fact rather annoyed Lindsey. As she and Cari walked to lunch she thought how much she really wished that they didn't have so many classes with them.
In truth she anticipated classes with the Slytherins to see the people the Sorting Hat was so sure she belonged with. Lindsey was also curious as to which class one certain professor taught, for she hadn't had him yet this day. And of course Cari wanted classes with Slytherins- well, only one Slytherin, to be honest. Neither of them had long to wait; just after lunch the two girls headed to Potions through the wide, dim corridors of Hogwarts school.
The potions room was in the dungeons, quite a bit deeper down into the school then the girls had yet gone. However, it took them a remarkably short time to get there, and soon, Cari leading the way, they strode into the classroom. The classroom was quite cold, and Lindsey shivered when they first stepped in. However, it was especially dark and foreboding with unidentifiable things in jars on shelves around the room. Lindsey liked it immediately.
"Here, let's sit here," Cari said, moving towards a table in the front row.
"No, no, no! Back here!" Lindsey argued, lingering near a table in the back. Seeing Cari was about to protest she added, "You want to be able to see Loverboy, don't you? You won't be able to see him from up there unless he's teaching the class!" Cari flushed and shot Lindsey a Look of Death as she used that crazy name, but came back to the table Lindsey stood by.
As Cari got out quill and parchment Lindsey leaned back in her chair to look around. Of all her classes this and Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed most bearable. And perhaps Care of Magical Creatures. The room certainly peaked her interest; dark and gloomy, with a cauldron at ready at each table. Then Lindsey spotted the entrance of Draco, and nudged Cari hard in the ribs. As she turned to remonstrate Lindsey pointed in his direction and she was instantly placated.
"Lindsey, shouldn't you be getting ready for the class?" Cari asked agitatedly and pointedly, looking censoriously at Lindsey lounging with her Converse sneakers on the table. Lindsey smiled back at her with feigned innocence, and Cari rolled her eyes profligately.
As the bell to start the period rang Lindsey did take her feet down off the table. She looked up towards the front of the room expectantly for the professor to begin, then found out exactly which professor it was.
The dark one from the night before.
Her stomach did a strange turn that was either caused by a sense of trepidation as he grimly surveyed the class or the second strudel she'd had that morning.
"Well," he began coldly. "I see all of you have not only returned, but increased in number," he said coldly, looking pointedly at Cari and Lindsey in the back of the room. Lindsey instantly panicked as attention was brought to her, but she gained confidence from the cool collectedness of Cari next to her.
"In case you don't know, my name is Professor Snape, and I will tell you right now I will do no such thing as 'go easy' on the two of you simply because of your move. Wizarding schools in America should be just as prodigious as Hogwarts; we shall see if you two put them to shame," he said icily. Lindsey felt Cari prickle as with static electricity at the challenge.
Now addressing the rest of the class with his harsh stare he continued, "I expect by now for all of you to have read The Artful Method of Potion Brewing." At this Lindsey noticed many students shift uneasily and look at each other. Two, she noticed, who looked as impassive as ever were Cari and Draco. She herself had not even finished the first sentence of the book, and was most grateful for the vigilance of Cari just then.
"Confusing and Befuddlement Draughts," Snape went on, plunging right into the lesson in his dry and derisive tone, "Someone tell me three ingredients commonly found in these. And this is an exceedingly simple question," he added with a sneer.
Never missing a beat, Cari thrust her hand into the air.
"Miss Green?" Snape addressed her with a skeptical raise of his eyebrows.
"Scurvy grass, sneezewort, and lovage," she answered with confidence. There was silence for a moment.
"Very good," Snape replied with a bitter, sarcastic edge. "Now that you've answered a question suitable for first years, let's see how you all can handle a potion meant for those in your own grade." With a flick of his wand instructions appeared on the board for a highly complicated Befuddlement Draught.
"You may work in pairs; I want a vial from each partnership by ten minutes before the end of class. Get to work!" At that the silent class exploded into action as they started in on their potions.
* * *
As soon as Draco had walked into the Potions classroom he had noticed the two new girls from the Sorting Ceremony, who he had at that time recognized from the train. He wasn't quite sure what opinion to have of them just yet, although he was fairly sure it would be negative.
Then when that girl, the lighter one, had answered Snape's question before he did he was absolutely positive. There had been something absolutely… Granger about that, and there wasn't much he hated more than a know-it-all mudblood.
Of course, Draco had no way to know whether Cari was a mudblood or not, and therefore temporarily reserved that judgment. He would simply have to placate himself by completely pulling off this potion while she, surely, would not.
Draco couldn't help but smile self-assuredly as he began measuring out the necessary ingredients.
* * *
"Hey look! He's smiling…" Cari whispered giddily, motioning secretly over to Draco.
"Oh cripes, would you shut-up? Help me out here; I don't know what I'm doing!" Lindsey said agitatedly.
"Right…" Cari muttered, obviously forcing her attention back to the potion at hand. Just in time too.
"No, not that one!"
She snatched the incorrect ingredient out of Lindsey's hand. Pointing towards the board she said, "See, you can't add this until you add that and wait for it to turn a slightly yellow color. Not to mention you have to skin them first! Didn't you read any of your book?"
"The title," Lindsey replied with an apologetic smile.
"Lindsey…" she sighed exasperatedly. Sometimes she just didn't understand where that girl had her mind 90% of the time.
"Well, it looks like someone has something to get started on during dinner…" she ventured pointedly.
Lindsey made a face, but to no avail. Cari would not waver and what's more is that Lindsey knew she was right.
The two continued to work on their potion along with the rest of the class. Well, in all honesty it was Cari doing most of it. Professor Snape walked about the room, silently gauging the progress of each pair of students. He burned out several students who had made obvious mistakes, one of which was Lisa Turpin, whose potion had somehow started on fire. When Snape walked slowly to hover at the back near Lindsey and Cari, Lindsey got so nervous she dropped a jar of pickled daisy root.
"Hey, careful!" Cari cried. "You are so lucky you didn't break that!" Lindsey just picked up the jar and hid her face in her hair, as she usually did when she was nervous.
Finally the clock read 10 minutes to the end of class.
"Everyone's vials on my desk now," Snape ordered, and the students obeyed.
"Here, you take it up," Cari said, shoving the vial into her hands.
"Wha- fine," Lindsey alleged.
Being especially mindful of the hem of her robes Lindsey brought the potion forward and remarkably did not trip.
Snape strode up to his desk from the back of the room as Lindsey sat back down. Smirking, he separated most of the potions into another group; all but two. He gestured towards the larger group of vials.
"These," he stated maliciously, "wouldn't befuddle anyone any more than a glass of water. And some," he picked up one vial that was a strange purple color and emitting a pungent steam even through the cork, "may have even more dire effects." Lisa Turpin slid down in her seat.
"However," he continued, now indicating the other two vials, "It seems at least some of you may have an inkling as to what you are doing. But now, we must test them both." Here his eyes sparked viciously. He picked up both vials and began to pace slowly and deliberately as he continued, "A mistake sometimes made in the brewing of this particular Befuddlement Draught is the omittance of one ingredient. Without this ingredient the potions are identical… to the eye. However the outcomes are quite different.
"Cari and Draco, are you both quite certain that you did not forget this ingredient?"
Draco nodded slightly, a small half-smile on his face. Cari nodded as well, a steely, determined glint in her eye.
"The antidote to this Befuddlement Draught is simple, and I have quite a store of it. Knowing this, are you sure enough to test the potion yourselves… on your partner?" Snape asked challengingly.
Cari shot a quick glance at Lindsey whose eyes had gotten wide and was shaking her head vigorously, then nodded an affirmative at Professor Snape. Draco saw her nod and did the same. Pansy, his partner, elbowed him sharply. Draco just looked back at her condescendingly.
Professor Snape handed each of them the vials and instructed them to drink. Lindsey shot daggers at Cari with her eyes as she lifted the vial to her lips. Cari just stared back at her with steady, grim, assurance. Lindsey and Pansy both downed the potion at the same time, the entire class rapt with attention.
Almost instantly Lindsey's face went blank, her eyes empty and glazed. She looked down curiously at the vial still in her hand, then around at the room with a most comical puzzled expression.
Pansy, however, seemed exactly the same. Then she suddenly made as if to sneeze, and when she did her hair turned a very vivid green and grew about an inch. Everyone stared at her, eyebrows raised (Lindsey still gazed around perplexedly) when she sneezed again. Again her hair grew and now was a nauseating shade of magenta.
"As I'm sure most of you do not know, the omittance of the singed knotgrass causes what would be a particularly potent Befuddlement Draught into a most unusual form of the common cold," Snape said with an evil smile.
Draco looked mortified, then outraged. Pansy stifled a scream, then barely kept herself from hyperventilating. However, the bell then rang, signaling the end of class. As the students swept out of the classroom, Snape went to a shelf to retrieve both antidotes.
After Cari and Draco both successfully administered the antidotes and their partners were back to normal, Snape ordered of Draco and Pansy, still checking her hair furtively, "I want a foot of parchment from both of you on the most common mistakes in the making of Befuddlement draughts." Draco scowled and stormed out. Pansy flounced after him. Cari watched him go and Lindsey smirked maliciously.
Snape saw this and said, "And from you two I want two feet on the history and origin of Befuddlement Draughts and their ingredients."
The smirk fell instantly from Lindsey's face as she picked up her bag and followed Cari out the door.