CHAPTER 20: POTIONS
Around 11:30 that night, members of the Order began arriving at Headquarters for the biweekly meetings.
Sirius stood anxiously in the kitchen, waiting the arrival of a certain greasy-haired git, as he had for the last several hours.
Finally, the potions professor arrived and was on his way towards the meeting room, when he was intercepted.
"Where is he? Is he okay? What happened?" Sirius asked, concerned.
"He's fine," Snape said condescendingly. "I got there in time and he took the potion. He opted to stay and wander the woods anyway, for old times sake."
"Good," Sirius said. Then his anxiety about his friend faded, only to be replaced by anger; he slammed Snape up against the wall. "What were you thinking? You knew it was the full moon and you still left Remus without any Wolfsbane potion! He could have hurt himself, or Merlin-forbid, someone else!"
"He was fine," Snape sneered. "He's been doing this for years, he should know what to do."
"Well, what if something had happened? He does have a mission you know," Sirius said, trying to appeal to the man's sense of duty, as his humanity had left long ago.
"He went to the house like he used to. It's so old and decrepit there no one would ever show up. Besides, he got his precious potion in time." Snape pushed against Sirius, and ripped himself free of the man's grip.
Sirius was about to attack Snape but was stopped by the sudden presence of the Headmaster.
"That's enough," he said. "Snape was having a conversation with me and I forgot that he had a potion to deliver to Remus. It's my fault he was late. Now if you could both stop pestering each other long enough we can get some work done." With that said, Dumbledore glided between them in order to enter the meeting room further down the hall. Snape and Sirius glared at each other, Snape fixed his robes, and they set off down the hall.
"Now then," Dumbledore said. "The first order of business is the arrival of the new ministry professor. Miss Sarah Fox has been an interesting person to have at Hogwarts these past few days; she had definitely shaken things up a bit."
"She kicked Mr. Malfoy out of class, permanently," McGonagall said. Murmurs went around the table.
"Can she do that?" Sirius called out, astonished. "I mean, what exactly did he do?"
"Apparently he offended her, disrupted her class or some nonsense," Snape bit out. "If I had known professors had the power to do that, I'd have done it a long time ago."
"A personal dislike against a student or a student's relatives should in no way compromise that student's education," McGonagall said.
"But we both know that's not the case," Sirius said, snarling at Snape.
"Please," Dumbledore interrupted. "Fighting will not help anyone. The new professor supposedly works for the ministry, but her behaviour has been slightly out of character." Dumbledore began to inform the Order of the professor's behaviour, and of the conversation between Snape and himself. When he was done, the talking began.
"She's probably using Polyjuice potion."
"I don't recall anyone named Sarah Fox in the ministry."
"She really kicked Malfoy out of class?"
"What do you think she really wants?"
"What department did you say she was in?"
"I think we should keep an eye out for her."
"She's really not as bad as Umbridge, but I'm tired of having the ministry butting in."
"What does she look like? Do you have a picture? If you did I might be able to ask a few people at work, see what they know."
"You can't trust them; always got to be on your toes."
"That's enough," Dumbledore said, trying to get everyone's attention. "One at a time, please." Dumbledore went around answering people's questions as best as he could.
Sirius perked up a bit when he mentioned that she was a blonde, but deflated once he found out she had blue eyes. Buffy had always had brilliant green eyes...
"I must sat that I carry no ill feelings towards her, none at all, strangely enough," Dumbledore said. "There's something about her that seems familiar, and somewhat comforting, although I can't figure out what it is. I trust that everyone will look into this matter, but at the moment I believe we have more pressing issues to deal with."
The subject was changed and the meeting continued on, but Sirius' mind didn't follow what else was said. What did it matter? He wasn't going anywhere anyway, and besides, he couldn't keep his mind from drifting to Buffy if his life depended on it. So why fight it? The question was, should he tell Dumbledore about his dream?
No. He would probably tell him the same thing Remus did, that it was just his memories resurfacing after years of Dementors influence.
But how could he know what she looked like years later?
The next couple of days went by uneventfully. Buffy kept trying the location spell for Remus, but she figured it must not have worked. First, they were led to a house that hadn't been used in years. Then, the dot showed up in France, before travelling to Bulgaria and Rome. Buffy just gave up on the spell.
Sure, Remus might be on vacation or something, but Buffy doubted it. It was possible he was on the run with Sirius; at least, that's what Buffy hoped. She couldn't catch them, though. Each time Willow and Buffy left, racing after the dot, the place they ended up at was empty. They weren't ever houses, but just random spots of land, or holes in rocks; however, there was never any sign of life.
Buffy still had to finish the week with Umbridge supervising her class; a surprise call from Fudge made sure that she was keeping to the curriculum, much to Buffy's displeasure.
Soon, it was Friday. The day fifth year Gryffindors had potions; Buffy was keeping track.
During breakfast in the great hall it was time for the mail. Hundreds of owls flocked in from the ceiling, delivering messages to the students. One brown school owl dove down to the Gryffindor table and dropped off an envelope at Neville's seat, disturbing the eggs and overturning a couple of sausages.
No one was surprised at the letter; it wasn't anything unusual, and Neville just thought it was another reminder from his grandma. Upon opening it, however, he was slightly confused. All it said was "Breathe. Just remember to Breathe."
Neville looked up, remembering that Professor Fox had told him that during their 'detention' session. She remembered that he had potions today and wanted to remind him of their lesson! He looked up at the Head table, but found that Buffy was engrossed in a conversation with Dumbledore. Although, he could have sworn that she looked at him for the slightest second and winked, but that could have been his imagination.
Neville smiled to himself. He was going to make it through potions without a mistake.
The students were all seated and were just waiting for Snape to enter. And enter he did, flinging the door open and then letting it slam behind him. "Today's lesson is very dangerous and I will not tolerate any mistakes. If I see anyone fooling around, fifty house points will be taken. Half of you will be brewing the poison, while your partners will be brewing the antidote. They're on page 245 in your books, begin."
Neville was partnered with Harry, while Ron and Hermione were working together. "Ill take the poison," Neville volunteered, his voice a little shaky. 'Just breathe,' he reminded himself.
"Are you sure?" Harry asked.
"Yeah," Neville said, not sounding completely sure.
"Okay," Harry said. "I need to get this right, Snape's determined to fail me, so let's get started." Neville nodded and they opened their textbooks. Reading through all the ingredients, they went to the cabinet and picked out everything they would need.
The room was quiet as people were concentrating extremely hard on their potions; no one wanted to lose fifty house points, or screw up the potentially deadly poison. The chopping of the roots and the scraping of the ladles on the bottom of the cauldrons were the only sound.
But it had to happen. A cauldron had to explode.
The sound startled everyone, causing some to knock over their ingredients, and others to accidentally add ingredients at the wrong time, as they all jumped. Several other cauldrons began to boil over, some had their liquid catch on fire, and others had smoke billowing out of the top. It was like a chain reaction.
"LONGBOTTOM!" Snape yelled, startling Neville, who was trying to clean up the roots that had fallen off the edge of his table when the first cauldron had exploded.
"Y... yes, sir," Neville said slowly. 'He's just trying to get to you,' he remembered Professor Fox telling him. 'What can he do to you? Take house points away? Who cares?'
"I told you explicitly that I wouldn't tolerate any mistakes. Look what you've done!" he hissed, coming over to their table. "I suppose Potter thought he was too good to help you out, figuring that he wouldn't get any blame..." Snape trailed off as he came closer, realizing that their cauldrons were two out of the six that weren't ruined.
"I didn't do anything," Neville said.
Snape was astonished. Neither Neville nor Harry had exploded their cauldrons. He looked over towards Ron and his hadn't exploded either. He turned completely and noticed that it was Goyle's cauldron that had been the first to explode. Beside him, Crabbe's cauldron was spilling onto the floor, while Malfoy's potion was burning and Pansy's was smoking. "Fifty points from every person's cauldron that exploded," Snape said slowly, making true to his word. Moans of displeasure were heard, because most of the screwed up potions were Slytherins, as their cauldrons were closest to the original mess.
Snape waved his wand, clearing up the potions. "Finish your potions," Snape barked at the rest of the class. "I will be checking them at the end of the class. The rest of you will have zeros for this assignment. And if one more mistake is made," Snape left the threat hanging, frightening the students even more.
Neville's hand began to shake as he tried to measure out the dragon's blood and the blood spilt on the table. Neville quickly cleaned up the mess before Snape saw him.
"It's okay, Neville," Harry said softly. "We're almost done."
Neville looked at Harry gratefully and nodded. He took a deep breath and once again thought back to Professor Fox. 'Just take one step at a time.' Neville continued on down the list, following each step precisely. Before he knew it, Snape was talking again.
"Time's up. Let's see how you've all managed to screw up this time." Walking around to the six cauldrons left, one Slytherin and five Gryffindors, Snape was taken by surprise. He awarded Blaise ten points for correctly completing the poison, which was supposed to be a baby blue colour. Dean Thomas had managed to make an antidote, except his was a royal purple, and it was supposed to be a royal blue.
"That's a zero for today, Mr. Thomas," Snape said with a small smirk. He then walked over to Hermione and Ron's table, noticing that their poison was successfully completed, although their antidote was a sickly yellow. "Ten points from Gryffindor; he was your partner Mrs. Granger, I would have expected more from you."
Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Hermione put a hand on his arm to silence him. "No need to get more points off," she whispered bitterly. "He just wants to get a rise out of you."
"The slimy git," Ron hissed. "He takes points off when you do help and he takes points off when you don't help. How are you supposed to know what to do? If only he wasn't our teacher..."
"Ron!" Hermione whispered sharply.
Snape, meanwhile, was wandering over to the last remaining table. "Potter and Longbottom; a deadly combination. Let's see what catastrophe you have brewed up this time, shall we?" he asked with a malicious grin, sure that it was going to be something awful.
Upon reaching the table, he was astonished to see a baby blue potion sitting gently in one cauldron, while a royal blue antidote rested in the other. He had nothing to say at first, but then he furiously turned around and pointed at Hermione. "You!"
"What?" she yelped, startled. 'What could have possibly happened?' she thought.
"Obviously Mr. Weasley's potion is completely wrong because you were helping Potter and Longbottom, weren't you? I will not tolerate cheating in my classroom."
Several people jumped up, protesting the unjust accusation, while others smirked happily in their seats.
"SIT DOWN!" Snape yelled angrily. "I will not tolerate this kind of behaviour. I might have to throw you out of my class," Snape said, thinking happily about Professor Fox's previous behaviour. The students reluctantly took their seats, knowing that it was possible for that to happen.
"Now, all of you will get zeros on this assignment, you will serve detentions, and one hundred points will be taken from each of you; cheating will not be tolerated."
"You can't do that!" Harry yelled angrily. "We didn't do anything wrong! Hermione didn't help us out at all, so you can't accuse us of cheating!"
"Do you honestly expect me to believe that my two worst students successfully completed the potions that stumped so many of your better classmates?"
Neville couldn't believe it. The one time he had actually completed a potion by himself and he was accused of cheating! He stood up angrily. "I didn't cheat, and neither did Harry."
Snape, and the rest of the class, was astonished that Neville was actually standing up for himself, especially to him. "I thought I told you to sit down," he said intimidating.
Snape scared Neville a little and he was about to comply when he heard Professor Fox's voice in his head, 'What's the worst he could do to you? Take off points? Who cares?' He gathered up the little courage he had left and spoke up. "No. We didn't cheat. It's not even possible for Hermione to help us out; she's too far away."
"She may not be right next to you, but I'm sure you've figured out some cleaver system."
"We didn't cheat!" Neville yelled loudly, startling the entire classroom. "We followed the instructions exactly and we made the potions correctly BY OURSELVES!"
Harry, Hermione and Ron sat staring at Neville. They had never seen him so upset before; he was never this confrontational, although he had never been accused of cheating before, either.
"What's gotten into him?" Hermione asked Ron quietly.
"I don't know, but remind me never to make him angry. I didn't realize he could be so scary."
"That is enough, Mr. Longbottom. Fifty more points from Gryffindor for your insolence."
Neville was about to speak up again, when the door opened and in stepped Professor Dumbledore. "I was wandering through the halls and I happened to hear yelling coming from the classroom. Is everyone okay?"
"Yes, Headmaster, everything is fine," Snape started to say, only to be interrupted by Neville.
"He's accused Harry and I of cheating because we've done our potions correctly," he said loudly.
"Indeed?" Dumbledore said, surprised at this turn of events. "And did you?"
"No!" Neville cried.
Dumbledore nodded and looked to Harry, but somehow managing to avoid eye contact. "And you Harry?"
"I didn't cheat!" Harry said indignantly and angrily. "Like Neville said earlier, it's not even possible for us to cheat off of Hermione, she practically across the room."
Dumbledore looked at the seating arrangements and clapped his hands together, "Well, that settles it. No one cheated."
Everyone was taken by surprise at the abrupt announcement, but Neville continued with less enthusiasm. "Sir, he took off points..."
"Of course," Dumbledore said, "All house points taken away on this matter will be returned. Well, I really must be off, I've an important meeting I shouldn't be late for." With a curious smile at Neville, and a nod to Severus, Dumbledore left the classroom.
"Class dismissed," Snape said with a snarl, angry at Dumbledore's interference. Potter always seemed to get off...
"Neville, that was brilliant!" Ron exclaimed as they walked towards the great hall. All the Gryffindors were crowding around Neville, wanting to congratulate him on standing up to Snape.
"I didn't know you had it in you!" Seamus said, clapping him on the shoulder.
"I didn't either," Neville said with a shaky grin. He wasn't used to getting so much attention, but he wasn't upset about it. He did it. He conquered his fear and it was all thanks to Professor Fox.
"What do you think came over him?" Hermione asked Harry quietly. "I mean, he's been scared of Snape for years and all of a sudden he yells at him!"
"I don't know," Harry said, confused himself. It really wasn't like Neville.
"How did you do those potions, anyway?" Hermione asked curiously.
"What do you mean?" Harry said, offended.
"Well, honestly Harry, you and Neville aren't the best students in our class, and yet you did finish the potion, Snape had a point."
"We did it all by ourselves. We didn't cheat," Harry huffed, walking away from Hermione.
"Harry!" Hermione called out. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said, catching up to her best friend. "It's just a little strange is all. On Monday, Neville melted his cauldron again, and then today he's not only one of the few that completed the assignment, but he also stood up to Snape."
Harry didn't really want to say anything to Hermione, but he knew she had a point; she always did.
"I'm sorry, Harry, I don't know what I was thinking. I just... I'm sorry," Hermione said when she realized that Harry wasn't letting go of her earlier slip up. She didn't want him to be mad at her and she really didn't mean it like that.
"It's fine," he said, although there was a hint of disappointment in his voice still. "Maybe we just got lucky."
"Professor?" Neville asked, knocking on her office door. He heard footsteps and waited for the door to open.
"Neville? Can I help you with something?" Buffy said.
"I just wanted to thank you, for believing in me and helping me," Neville said rather shyly.
"I take it your Potion lesson went well?" Buffy said with a small smile.
Neville nodded with more enthusiasm. "I was one of the few to do the potion correctly," Neville began, telling her of all that had happened.
"Well, twenty points for the potion, and thirty points for facing your fear and standing up to Snape. He had no right to accuse you of cheating," Buffy said.
Neville smiled gratefully. "I just wish..." he trailed off.
"What?" Buffy asked curiously.
"It's nothing, goodnight," Neville said.
"Obviously it's not nothing," Buffy said. "Now what were you going to say?"
Neville looked at her a moment before dropping his gaze and reluctantly continuing. "I just wondered what my parents would say, that's all," Neville said.
Buffy didn't have much to say to that and Neville walked off after a final goodnight.