The Perfectionist
By Mykerinos
Chapter Thirteen: Inhale, exhale
"So, you think it's okay?" Hermione
asked Harry.
"I guess so," he answered, holding
the essay out for Hermione to take it back. Which she didn't.
"Could you please just read it one
more time, and tell me what you think I should change? My motto is that
improvement is always possible," Hermione started biting her nails as soon
as she had stopped speaking.
Harry sighed. "Hermione, I can't
see why you're so nervous about this essay. I mean, it's just another essay
on Potions, nothing unusual!"
"You don't get it," Hermione said,
as Professor McGonagall dismissed the class, and everybody started packing
their stuff. Hermione looked up, surprised. Was the lesson over already?
That meant they had Potions now...
Trying to stay calm, she packed her
things also, and slowly stood up, following Harry and Ron to the dungeons.
This was just another Potions lesson, nothing interesting...
As they walked into the class room,
Hermione got the urge to just run to her chair and bury herself in her
books... Instead, she just sat down quietly, and waited for the lesson
to begin.
Then Snape emerged from the
shadows, and immediately the class fell silent. He sat down behind his
desk, looking a few scared Gryffindors in the eye. Even after 7 years Snape
still managed to scare Neville Longbottom with a mere glare.
"If you all hand over your essays
to Mr Malfoy, we can start today's lesson," he said, silkily and intimidating
as ever.
Afraid to look up and face him, Hermione
pretended she was busy reading.
Draco stood up with a grin, and collected
the essays. When he arrived at Hermione's place, she didn't notice him.
"Your essay, mudblood," he sneered
silently so nobody but Hermione would hear it. Stuffing her essay into
his hands and shooting him a disgusted look, she hoped her essay would
be sufficient.
When Draco had collected the essays
and given them to Snape, the professor nodded curtly.
"On page 193 you've found instructions
on how to prepare the Magnetism potion," he said, standing up from his
desk. "The Magnetism potion has 3 distinguishing properties. Which 3?"
As a reaction, Hermione almost put
out her hand, but then she realised where she was, and suddenly she did
no longer want to put out her hand and answer that question... not now.
Hermione saw that everybody was staring
at her in disbelief. Obviously they had never seen Hermione
not
volunteering to answer a question in all those 7 years. And they were right,
because she had always put out her hand, even when she had known it had
been useless, and she had taken every opportunity to share the things she
knew from books with her class mates.
Perhaps Harry and Ron were surprised
the most.
"Something wrong, Hermione?" Harry
asked, a worried look on his face.
"No, I'm fine!" Hermione whispered
back, pretending she was very busy making notes.
"Don't you -- don't you know the
answer?" Ron asked, his voice trembling.
"Of course I do," Hermione snapped.
"It's just... my arm. It hurts," Hermione lied, feeling her face turning
red. She was a terrible liar.
"I don't recall giving permission
to confer," Snape said icily, turning all three silent for which Hermione
was grateful. At least she didn't have to explain this all now. "Weasley,
which are the 3 distinguishing properties of the Magnetism potion?"
Ron got a blank look on his face,
thinking hard. "It has a grey color... has a sweet scent... and it attracts
things to each other?"
Snape curled his lip. "Is that a
question or an answer, Mr Weasley?" he sneered, circling around their three
tables like an animal circling around its prey. Some Slytherins snickered
dumbly.
"An answer, sir," Ron replied, shrinking
in his chair.
Snape stood stil for a moment, as
if considering this answer. Then he walked back to his desk. "The Magnetism
potion indeed has a dark grey color, with, surprisingly, a smell that reminds
one sooner of flowers than of iron. As the name does suspect, it is used
to have things that are not of metal attract each other, like magnets do.
It makes use of 2 strong ingredients: the tail of a fire toad and yellow
beetle eyes,"
Although Hermione already knew this,
she made notes of it anyway. Just in case.
The rest of the lesson they spent
brewing the potion. Fortunately for Hermione she got paired up with Neville,
who didn't ask questions but just stayed his clumsy self. Hermione's mind
wasn't exactly with the potion. She found herself constantly glancing up
at Snape who was walking around, controlling the potions, and when she
looked back again because Neville was pulling her sleeve, she saw that
the potion had turned yellow.
"By Merlin, Neville, what did you
do?!" Hermione whispered, desperately trying to think up a way to repair
this.
"I don't know, I -- I..."
"... put in two yellow beetle
eyes instead of one," a voice came from behind. Both Hermione and Neville
turned around and looked up in terror at their professor. Hermione felt
panic taking over her mind. --Don't inhale! Whatever you do, just don't
inhale!-- a small voice yelled inside of her.
"I have told thrice what will happen
when you put in too much yellow beetle eyes, and still you manage to ruin
this potion with an overdose of beetle eyes..."
Hermione felt her head turning red
because of a lack of oxygen, and she couldn't think clearly. --Need
to breathe... I can't inhale!--
"You are in your seventh year, how
can you still be so thick?" Snape continued, glaring at Neville.
But for once Neville's attention
wasn't with Snape, but with Hermione. "'Mione, are you alright?!" he asked,
terrified.
"I'm. Fine." Hermione said through
clenched teeth, her face unnaturally red. Snape frowned surprised, and
then something snapped inside Hermione.
Inhaling greedily, she welcomed the
air, and exploded into loud chokes. As a reaction, Neville swung his arms
around, scared, and knocked over the cauldron with the yellow substance.
The stinky liquid spread everywhere, and people yelled, jumping away, while
Hermione was still choking.
Snape stood in the middle of this
total disorder, and tried to calm his class down. When nobody listened,
he grabbed his wand and cast the sonorus spell on himself.
"SILENCE!!" his voice echoed
through the dungeons, and it was possibly heard out of the dungeons as
well.
Everything and everyone fell silent,
and Hermione's choking was the only sound in the class room. Tears were
streaming down her cheeks, and her voice was starting to become raw.
Ending the spell, Snape started to
give orders. "Neville -- No, Draco, clean that potion. Weasley, bring Granger
to the Hospital Wing. The rest, get back to work!"
Hermione felt Ron grab her arm and
drag her away. As soon as they had got out of the class room, Hermione
fainted.
TBC